open house 2012

I asked a young friend to take pictures at our annual Christmas Open House last week. She did a great job.

Guests sign in as they come through the front door.

Christmas Open House

The living room tree holds our family ornaments. It’s nine feet tall and sits on a two foot high box that DH made for the tree. This is one of five revolving trees we have

Christmas Open House

The living room nativity is one my mother gave me in 1983.

Christmas Open House

The Bible is about 150 years old. We open it to Luke 2 and display it next to the nativity.

Christmas Open House

Genny, my sister, chalked a roaring fire on the fireplace cover. This year it was a good thing we had a fake fire in the fireplace rather than a real one as it was the warmest weather we’ve ever had for an open house. We opened windows early in the day to get the house ready for all the company.

Christmas Open House

Everyone also enjoyed Genny’s other chalked masterpiece…an eight foot tall Christmas tree in the music room.

Christmas Open House

The music room also has the bubble light tree. This tree has old-fashioned ornaments, bubble lights {like my Grandma’s tree}, vintage postcards, and candles {never lit, in case you’re wondering}.

Christmas Open House

The tree in the dining room is the Snow Tree. We covered every branch with fluffy cotton batting. I made the snowball ornaments years ago.

Christmas Open House

Christmas Open House

The cookie table was set up in the dining room.

Christmas Open House

Christmas Open House

truffle tree

Christmas Open House

In the kitchen, the table held the cookies waiting to be plated.

Christmas Open House

And an army of Christmas Mice waited nearby…

Christmas Open House

The kitchen windows are decorated with a garland and my collection of snowflake ornaments.

Christmas Open House

The door that leads to the addition is painted with a holly wreath each Christmas. This door was the front door on the farm house DH’s grand-father built.

Christmas Open House

The tree in the downstairs bedroom is dubbed “the blue and silver tree.” It’s a toss-up between this one and the glass tree upstairs for “favorite.”

Christmas Open House

Behind the blue and silver tree, this Jim Shore blue nativity sits on the book case.

Christmas Open House

In the same room, you’ll find The Tale of Three Trees on the little dresser.

Christmas Open House

Upstairs in the scrapbook/crafting room, I have a tree that displays the ornaments from the ornament exchange we have each year on the Christmas Notebook group. I made the garlands over the windows last year.

Christmas Open House

This year, I decided the “I Spy” tree needed a little freshening. I added a few new items to it and then the tree was repainted silver.

Christmas Open House

Isn’t this paper doll cute? My daughter-in-law found Mr. and Mrs. Claus in North Carolina and gave then to me last year. We had them framed and they hang in the craft room.

Christmas Open House

Christmas Open House

Our youngest daughter wanted something different this year in the way of a Christmas tree. She used old Christmas cards to make a two-dimensional tree on the wall in her bedroom.

Christmas Open House

Our older daughter’s room was decorated with a book theme. Her door wreath turned out beautifully.

Christmas Open House

Her tree ornaments were all made of book pages. She punched stars and sewed them together to make the garland.

Christmas Open House

Our middle daughter’s tree is done with copper colored ornaments and beads. So pretty!

Christmas Open House

The ribbons on the glass tree look gold in this picture, but they are silver.

Christmas Open House

All the ornaments on this tree are made of glass.

Christmas Open House

With more than 160 guests, there were a few I didn’t get to say hello to. But I did enjoy talking to my second cousin and his wife and my Mom’s brother, my Uncle Tim, among others.

Christmas Open House

I hope your celebration of Christmas includes grateful thanks for all that Christ has done.

nativity

~~Rhonda

menu plan monday ~ december 10, 2012

I’ve been working on some mid century modern Putz houses for my daughter-in-law. I used three patterns from RetroRenovation.com, and drew two patterns myself. They’ve been fun to work on.

mid century modern putz house

I need to finish what I can on the putz this morning, then get busy in the kitchen. Our son and his wife are coming for Christmas this evening and we’re having “Christmas dinner” tomorrow. Then gift exchange with them. My Dad is coming for that. Then we have the house concert on Thursday evening, so I have some kitchen prep to do for that.

Monday
Spaghetti
Homemade Sauce
Garlic Bread
Green Salad
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

Tuesday
Crock Pot Rotisserie Style Chicken
Rice
Steamed Broccoli
Corn

Wednesday ~ Christmas Dinner while our son and his wife are home for a few days.
Crock Pot Turkey
Glazed Ham
Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Sauce
Jiffy Corn Casserole
Broccoli Casserole
Brussels Sprouts
Green Salad
Creamy Chocolate Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cake

Thursday
Cheesy Potato Sausage Soup

Thursday Evening House Concert
Meatball Sliders I’ll make mine using crescent rolls in small muffin tins.
Bacon Wrapped Little Smokies
Sausage Balls
Three Cheese Spread with Crackers and Pita Chips
Antipasto Platter
Veggie Platter with Beau Monde Dip
Sweet Pickles
Cinnamon Pecans
Candy Jumble
Peanut Butter Truffles

Friday
Homemade Pizza

Saturday
Fridge Food

Sunday
No clue…deciding later.

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

ornament tutorial ~ bottle brush tree on a wooden spool

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.

tree and spool ornament

Supplies needed:

  • 2″ – 2 1/2″ bottle brush trees, bases removed
  • wooden spools
  • strips of text cut to fit the height of the thread area of the spool and long enough to go all the way around (use pages from old books, magazines, wrapping paper, or type your own phrase and print it)
  • ornament hooks for making hangers
  • wire cutters
  • scissors
  • star shaped beads for the top of the tree
  • miniature ornaments and beads to dangle under the spool
  • strings of small beads or tinsel pipe cleaner to wind around the tree as a garland
  • fine point tweezers
  • small beads to glue to tree as ornaments
  • glitter
  • white tacky glue or mod podge
  • silver glitter glue
  • paint brush for applying white glue and glitter glue
  • hot glue gun

tree and spool ornament

To decorate the spools, paint each spool with white glue, all the way around where the thread would be. Place the strip of paper over the glued area and wrap it around, adding glue if needed. When the strip of paper overlaps, tear the remainder off, then paint glue under the end of the paper and over the entire top of the strip of paper. Smooth out any bumps that may appear by rolling the handle of the paint brush over the paper.

tree and spool ornament

When the glue has dried, paint glitter glue over the entire spool, including the text. The glitter glue I used leaves a thin film of glitter over everything and doesn’t hide the text at all. Don’t use a thick coarse glitter that will cover the text and make it hard to read. If you don’t have glitter glue, just add some fine silver glitter to white glue and paint it on.

This is the glitter glue I used:

glitter glue

spool ornament

No, I didn’t squirt the glue right onto the counter. The glitter glue is actually in a plastic container, though that is hard to tell in this picture.

tree and spool ornament

Prepare the dangling ornament for the bottom of the spool by adding a bead to the string of a miniature ornament.

tree and spool ornament

When the glue is dry on the spool, thread the beaded miniature ornament through the spool from the bottom, checking to be sure the text is right side up. Glue the cord of the miniature ornament to the top of the spool, using the hot glue. Be sure you leave enough room for the little ornament to hang freely below the spool.

tree and spool ornament

To make the hanger for the top of the tree, use needle nose wire cutters to make a loop in one end of the ornament hook. Wind the wire tightly around itself so it will fit through the hole in the star bead. Be sure the star is right side up. Trim the tail of the wire to about 1/2″.

tree and spool ornament

tree and spool ornament

Glue the star to the top of the tree, sliding the tail of the wire down into the tree so it sits along the center wire of the tree. Glue the tail to the center of the tree.

tree and spool ornament

You can use strings of beads or tinsel pipe cleaners to decorate the tree as garlands. Either way, start by using the hot glue to glue the end at the bottom of the tree. Set it so it will slowly slant up and around the tree.

tree and spool ornament

When the glue at the end is hard, continue around the the until the top is reached, using dots of hot glue to hold it in place.

tree and spool ornament

When you get to the end, wrap the tinsel pipe cleaner just under the base of the star and trim it with the wire cutters so it is flush with the tree. If a sharp end sticks out, push it into the tree so it won’t catch on anything or scratch anyone.

tree and spool ornament

When finished, use tweezers to pick the hot glue “spider webs” off the tree.

tree and spool ornament

After the garland is done, use fine point tweezers to add small beads to the tree as ornaments. Believe me, the right tweezers make all the difference! I use “parade” bead necklaces and cut the beads apart for the larger ornaments. Don’t worry about the tiny “tail” of string. It’s easy to turn the bead to hide that. For smaller ornaments, I use colored and metallic beads.

beads for tree and spool ornaments

Fine point tweezers make this job easier than it would be otherwise.

fine point tweezers

tree and spool ornament

tree and spool ornament

When done, use the tweezers to groom the tree of hot glue “spider webs.” It will look much more professional and finished if you eliminate those glue threads.

Using hot glue, attach the finished tree to the top of the spool. The ornament can be done at this point, or you can spread it with glue and sprinkle on some glitter. Personally, I lean toward “can’t have too much glitter.”

This is a variation of the ornament, using strings of very small beads as a garland on the tree and also as a trim on the spool.

bottle brush tree ornament

bottle brush tree ornament

I plan to make more of these ornaments. They were fun to put together.

bottle brush tree ornament

Update July 26, 2016 / Click this link for another post on making these ornaments. A few helpful tips. spool ornaments

Similar spool ornaments I have made can be found in my Etsy shop. ChristmasNotebook

~~Rhonda

menu plan ….. thursday ~ december 6, 2012

It has taken me a few days to regroup after the open house. I have spent the time in my crafting room making ornaments and watching movies. Love me some Netflix!

tree and spool ornament

I also enjoyed the beautiful sunset on Tuesday evening. Did anyone else see it?

gorgeous sunset last

In the meantime, it’s been “all hands fend for themselves.” Now I’m posting the menu for the rest of the week and getting back to business. Our younger son and his wife are coming from Seattle for a Christmas visit next week and I have meals to plan and gifts to ready for that. And next Thursday is our annual house concert, so there will be plenty of appetizers to make, as well.

Monday
Not sure what we ate…probably cookies!

Tuesday
I had a turkey sandwich…

Wednesday
The girls took matters into their own hands, and bought pizza for everyone…

Thursday
Cheeseburger Soup
Crackers
Celery and Carrot Sticks

Friday
BBQ Chicken in the oven
BBQ Pork Steaks in the oven
Oven Fried Potato Wedges
Green Salad
Steamed Broccoli

Saturday
Homemade Pizza

Sunday
Spaghetti
Homemade Sauce
Homemade Rolls
Green Salad
Corn
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

open house report

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 pictures for me during the party. She came early to get pictures of the decorations, then stayed for most of the open house, taking more pics. I’ll have those at the end of the week, after she edits them, and will post some party pics then. Meanwhile, I’ll post here some of the pictures my family took with their phones. Aren’t those phone cameras handy dandy!?

The weather was phenomenal. This may have been the only open house when we had to actually open the windows because the weather was so warm! When guests arrived, though, they were greeted by a roaring fire in the living room. A fake fire, that is. Genny chalked logs and flames on the fireplace cover. Worked perfectly! Here’s a picture of it, taken during pre-party prep. DH is taking a break from the decorating.

fake fire

My usual schedule for the day before the party is to decorate the sugar cookies first thing. It takes five or six hours to finish them. After that, I work on the last chocolate work that needs to be done…dipping, dunking and drizzling. Last year, I finished at 1:00 a.m. Not good. This year, I was done at 8:30 p.m. Much better!

decorating the cookies

This is the kitchen table the night before the party. Boxes and boxes of cookies and candies. And my notebook on the table, with the cookie list. Check, check, check…

cookies...ready and waiting

The cookie table…

cookie table

cookie table

Christmas cookies

BTW, my dear friend Laurie made (on Friday and Saturday) the snowflake curtains behind the cookie table. And she made a tree skirt for the silver and blue tree, valances for DD’s bedroom, added length to a bed skirt, and made curtains to hang in the corner desk areas of the scrapbook counter to hide all the boxes I stored under there. She was amazing! Thank you, Laurie!!!

craft room

Laurie did me another favor this season. She and her hubby have just finished a year long renovation of the entire first floor of their log cabin. Beautiful! And during that transition, she has had opportunity to bless others with furniture she no longer needs. She gave me a beautiful display cabinet that now showcases my Putz houses. I hope to have a picture of that to share with you soon. The Putz looked beautiful in it. Another big thanks to Laurie!!

puts house

My dear daughter-in-law found great Mr. and Mrs. Santa paper doll sheets at a thrift store. They were still wrapped in the original plastic. DD found frames for them and they are now hanging on the cabinets in the scrapbook room. So cute!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus paper dolls

Today, we’re taking it easy, resting, watching movies, nibbling cookies…not much going on. I may take a nap!

Christmas goodies

Our thanks to all our guests for taking the time to share this special time of the year with us. God bless you, every one!

~~Rhonda

paper wreath

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. The blogger used a cardboard base and stapled the leaves to it. I used a wire ring and hot glue. And I added a berry garland.

I started with the wire wreath ring and wrapped it with ivory colored felt, using hot glue to secure it.

paper wreath

I had a garland with white berries on it that my sister found at a thrift store last year. I glued that to the center of the ring. Next, I glued the individual leaves, cut from used book pages, to the felt. The pages were various shades of ivory.

paper wreath

Before attaching the leaf to the wreath, I folded the bottom of the leaf and closed it with a dot of hot glue.

paper wreath

Then I started at the bottom of the wreath and went up one side, overlapping the leaves as I glued them down.

paper wreath

After fluffing the white berry garland a bit, a gold bow at the top finished it perfectly.

paper wreath

It turned out beautifully and didn’t take that long to put together. It looks great on her door.

~~Rhonda

menu plan monday ~ november 26, 2012

Now that the living room tree is done, we can move on to other projects. The girls decorated the scrapbook room tree for me. I have a few smaller trees to finish and two trees that need some finishing touches. Other than that, the trees are done. Now on to other things. Like baking the last of the cookies for the Open House. My granddaughter made the dough for these Spiced Shortbread Cookies last week and put it in the fridge for me to bake when I had time. I made it into little gingerbread boys and girls.

Spiced Shortbread Cookies

With all the work to do before the weekend, meals are going to be quick and easy this week.

Monday
Ham and Turkey Sandwiches
Homemade Bread
Pretzels

Tuesday
Chicken and Dumpling Soup

Wednesday
Tacos
Homemade Tortilla Chips
Avocado Sour Cream

Thursday
Homemade Pizza

Friday
Fridge Food

Saturday
Alton’s Pot Roast in the Crock Pot
Homemade Buns
Chips and Dip
Red Grapes

Sunday
Ham or Turkey Sandwiches
Homemade Buns

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda

decorating the living room tree

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 in now and then to see what’s going on.

Buttercup and her girl

And the girls took some time now and then for extra fun…do you know what they’re doing?

blanket tattoos

Blanket tattoos!

blanket tattoos

After stringing the lights, which takes five or six hours to complete, the red beads are added to the tree. We use two strands of red beads in two sizes.

decorating the living room tree

The beads are attached to the branches with ornament hooks.

decorating the living room tree

Then the popcorn and cranberry strings are placed. It takes six bags of cranberries to make enough garland for this tree. This year, the berries were very small. Tip for making popcorn and cranberry strings…pop the corn a few days ahead of when you want to string it. Stale popcorn won’t break apart like freshly popped will.

decorating the living room tree

After the bow topper is in place, it’s time for the ornaments. This tree holds the ornaments we’ve collected over the years. Vacations and trips, family events, etc. And the girls personal collections are on this tree as well.

decorating the living room tree

When the ornaments are done, the tinsel goes on.

decorating the living room tree

We were eager to be done at this point, but everyone took time to place the tinsel carefully.

decorating the living room tree

I’ll get a better picture at some point, but here’s the finished tree.

decorating the living room tree

I’m going to make valances for our middle daughter’s room today. That won’t take long. I also plan to make a tree skirt for the blue and silver tree, using a round table cloth and some pale blue snowflake tulle. I’ll let you know how that goes.

~~Rhonda

candy turkeys and a happy thanksgiving day

We have much to be thankful for. God proves Himself faithful and generous in every way. This year, we are particularly grateful for the fact that our son and his family now live nearby.

Thanksgiving Day started early. DH picked the twins up a bit after 8:00 and took them to church with him and our three daughters for the annual Thanksgiving Worship service. At home, I waited for my Dad to arrive. It was great to have him join us. Genny was supposed to come, as well, but was unable to make it. She joined her daughter and son-in-law instead.

Dad brought a special gift to me. I drew this sketch of the little barn behind our house on the wall of my closet when I was perhaps 14 year old. Dad and Mom saved it when the house was torn down and Dad had it framed to give to me. Something I will treasure.

sketch of our little barn

After church, the twins took part in a family tradition. We’ve been doing this for many years. Making candy turkeys!

making candy turkeys

making candy turkeys

making candy turkeys

making candy turkeys

For Thanksgiving dinner, we headed to the family farm where our older son and his family live. The twins are the seventh generation of our family to live on the farm.

family farm

A candy turkey for each dinner plate…

a candy turkey for every plate

a candy turkey for every plate

The turkey was delicious! As were the other dishes…stuffing with oysters, sweet potatoes, au gratin potatoes, mashed potatoes, pasta and cheese, homemade rolls, green beans with mushroom sauce, corn casserole…I’m forgetting dishes, I’m sure.

carving the delicious turkey

After dinner, we played Apples to Apples. Fun!

Apples to Apples

Rose Red showed the kitty to Great-Pa.

showing the kitty to Great-Pa

Then dessert. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake.

pumpkin chocolate chip cheesecake

And chocolate chess pie.

Thanksgiving dessert

Not to mention the pumpkin pie, the apple pie or the peach pie…

After we came home, we worked on stringing more popcorn and cranberry strings while we watched Brave.

popcorn and cranberry strings

We plan to put up the living room tree today.

~~Rhonda

menu plan monday ~ november 19, 2012

We are grateful for the holiday set aside for thanking God for His many good gifts and blessings. We hope your Thanksgiving Day is one of joyful thanks and gratitude.

Christmas decorating continues at our house. This week and next will be very busy. The household cats don’t seem to mind. Buttercup does not bother the trees at all, but she sure does love to nap under them.

Christmas catnap

Cedar is content to lounge around the kitchen, watching DH make fudge.

waiting for the fudge to be ready

We won’t be doing much lounging the next few weeks, though. The menu for this week reflects the rush we’ll be in.

Monday
Hamburgers or Tacos / diner’s choice

Tuesday
Ham or Turkey Sandwiches
Pretzels
Red Grapes

Wednesday
Chicken and Dumpling Soup
Rosemary Bread

Thursday / Thanksgiving Dinner
I’m taking:
Green Beans with Mushroom Sauce
Homemade Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cheesecake

Friday
Fridge Food

Saturday
Homemade Pizza

Sunday
BBQ Chicken in the Crock Pot
Homemade Buns
Celery and Carrot Sticks with Ranch Dip
Red Grapes

You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda