A bit of winter decor

 

Now that it's almost Valentine's Day,  I'm going to share the smidgen of winter decorating I did.  The area pictured above is the top of a shortish bookcase in a corner of the living room.  Some of these same items were here for Christmas decor, but they are lovely and wintry and so they remain -- the card back center, from our good friend Kristina; the beautiful winter pitcher is by Hallmark and was a thrift store find a couple of years ago; and the little cardinal, for whatever reason, was found in a kitchen drawer at my childhood home.

The crewel picture of a skating boy was made by me in the 1970s; the winter tag was made by me a few years ago; the little house in a jar was made by me from a repurposed candle jar; the blue snowflake made by a crafting friend; and the "January" garland was made by my friend Judy.

Inquiring minds might like a closer look at a couple of things.  Below is the back side of the January/winter tag.  It was my first attempt at tag making and I still love it.

This is the front of the tag.  I repurposed a little snowman charm from a defunct necklace.

This adorable project was so much fun to make.  Find out how I did it here: Winter house in a jar.  I'm still astounded that I was able to pull this project together. 

Top 2 shelves of my winter hutch.

A blurry photo.  It's hard to photograph things in jars.  This one was repurposed from a mason jar with no lid, a figurine from a broken snow globe, and a page from an old hymnal.  The song is "Whiter Than Snow", but that's impossible to see from this photo.

A fun Christmas card from my daughter's family and some of my glitter houses.

"Snow" card made by my friend Judy; a cross stitch made by me

The two oldest grandgirls are now adults, but I've always liked this fun snowman photo of them.  The Fire King "Kimberly" mug just seems to fit with winter decor, and the cabin plate was a thrift store find.

And there is some of my simple winter decorating!

Starting a new scrapbook journal

I've written bits and pieces about my scrapbook style journals before, but only in passing.  I've never really shared much about my personal journals.  I had read on several blogs about this wonderful idea of keeping a simple daily journal that would be interspersed with beautiful bits and pieces of things that speak to the journaler in a personal way.  I so wanted to do this, ever since I first read about it.  But it wasn't until 2007 that I finally spent the money on the watercolor sketchbook that would be the basis of my scrapbook journal.  (In case readers hadn't noticed by now, I tend to be extremely frugal.  Bordering on cheap.)  

Above you see my first journal, begun in July 2007 and filled up in just over 2 years.  I don't think other scrapbook journals I've seen have been titled, but I have given titles to mine.  I titled this first one "Gathering My Thoughts" and, as you can see, the first picture I chose was bowls and crocks full of cherries.  You can't really read the lettering around the picture, but this is what I wrote: 

"I love cherries; I love vintage things; my kitchen is red and green.  Just as the cherries have been gathered into these lovely bowls and crocks, I hope to use this journal as a place to gather my thoughts.  No perfectionism allowed."

The next two photos show some of the pages from that book.  You can get an idea as to some of the kinds of things I have been drawn to. 

 

My next scrapbook journal was begun in August 2009 and here is the first page of it:

Its title is "Stir Up Memories", but of course there are all sorts of topics covered in this scrapbook journal.  I jotted the following in reference to the patchwork scraps surrounding the pretty vintage bowls:

"Life is like a patchwork quilt ... some beautiful patches, some ugly ones, some dull patches, some unusual ones ... all stitched together by God's hand to produce something lovely and useful."

Many memories are detailed in this scrapbook journal: holidays, trips, births and deaths, and just day to day happenings.  There also memory joggers, such as what action to take if the wood furnace smokes.  And toward the end of it, I kept the journal at our cottage and, in my spare time,  journaled through the book Make Room for What You Love, by Melissa Michaels. 

And now I'm ready to start a new one.  A little simple math will tell you that "Stir Up Memories" took me 13 years to complete!  Yes, sometimes I skipped entire years in between journaling here.  Life has been just a little busy.  That's why I ended up taking it to the cottage and giving myself a specific topic to journal about.

 "Keep the Homefires Burning" seems like the perfect title for another scrapbook journal as I start this new one in October 2022.  Keeping the homefires burning is such an important responsibility in our day when life itself seems to be turning ... well, maybe not upside down, but surely sideways.  We need to make sure we are holding tight to traditional values [gasp!] and keeping our families as close as possible.  We need to make our homes beacons of warmth and light, ministering not only to our loved ones and friends, but also to others who need the light of the gospel.

As I think of homefires, I also inevitably think of our little camp.  Fires are pretty much a constant here -- fires in the woodstove to take off the morning or evening chill, and campfires in the outdoor fire pit to roast hot dogs or marshmallows with family and friends.  Or, sometimes just for the companionship of a friendly, cheery, crackling fire.

I'm several pages in and so far have just been journaling about happenings this fall, starting with our Nevada family's visit in September.  I have high hopes for keeping up with this scrapbook journal more regularly than the previous one.

Something new in my Etsy shop!

 I'm trying something new in the way of Etsy shop listings in the Vintage Christmas category: small and simple ephemera packs for people to use in paper crafting and other projects.  This is proving to be a great way to sell some bits and pieces that otherwise might get lost in the shuffle.  So far I've put together four of these, and two have sold.

The first ephemera pack I put together was a classic Christmas theme with mostly red, green, white and gold components.  I'm including unused cards, used cards, card fronts, vintage tags and stickers, and more.  I'm adding a vintagey Christmas photo card into each pack too.  I'm wrapping up each assortment in a strip of vintage, or vintage-look, wrapping paper.

I'll show you the finished four packs and a few of the items for each one.  The photo for the first pack shows nearly everything it contains, but others do not.

Next I got the idea to make a "Blue Christmas" pack.  Many Christmas cards have a blue theme, and I have always loved those, so ...

 

Next I assembled an ephemera pack in shades of green.

The most recent pack I've put together is items with a red, or red and white theme.

What do you think?  Which of these would be your favorite?  Do you like the idea of a real assortment of colors and designs in a paper ephemera pack?  Or would you prefer items of mostly one color?  Any ideas for other colors or Christmas themes I should feature?  (I've considered candles, Santas, bells, lanterns, snow scenes and more, but I'd be open to more ideas.)

Brown paper gingerbread held up with strings

... this project is one of my favorite things!

I made these decorative gingerbread men many years ago, and they are still holding up well.  You can see them peeking out through the plaid bows and fabric trees on the chandelier in the photo above.

It seemed to me that it was time to post a craft project here in my daily December posts.  But what to write about?  I knew I'd written about these on my Christmas blog some time ago,  so I checked to see if I'd posted about them here at my kitchen table.  Apparently not!  So here we go.

These ornaments are simple and fun, so I thought others might like to try them as well.

You will need:

* Brown paper bag or a roll of brown kraft paper
* Pencil
* Gingerbread man cookie cutter (optional)
* Polyester fiberfill
* Sewing machine (threaded with color thread of your choice; white, tan, brown, or even red would work)
* Pins
* Thread and needle
* Scissors
* Dimensional squeeze-bottle paints in white, black (or dark brown)  and red

1. First draw (or trace, using the cookie cutter) two gingerbread man shapes for each ornament on the brown paper.  Cut out the shapes.

2. Pin the 2 shapes together and machine-sew most of the way around them, leaving room to poke in some fiberfill.  You don't want them too puffy; just use enough to give them a little dimension.

3. After adding the fiberfill, finish sewing the rest of the way around the shape.  Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitching.

4. Thread a needle and add a hanging loop to the top of the gingerbread man by piercing it with the needle, going through both layers.  Trim to size desired and knot ends of thread together at the top.

5. Add eyes, smile, buttons, white "icing" trim and a little red heart if desired, using dimensional paint.

6. Allow paint to dry before hanging the ornament wherever you'd like.

These cute gingerbread men could be used in numerous ways.  If you eliminate the strings (or even if you don't), they would look cute piled in a bowl, maybe with a few real or faux apples and a few evergreen sprigs.

They can be hung from a chandelier as I have often done.  They would look really nice hung in the panes of a window, perhaps with a sprig of evergreen or holly or a red bow tied at the top.  You could use them to trim an indoor wreath or tie them to a wrapped gift.  And of course you could always hang them on the Christmas tree.

Have fun with this idea!

Our trip to the Great North Woods, Part 4

Today I will post about the Tuesday and Wednesday of our trip.  There was some rain on these days and we spent a lot of time indoors.  So we didn't get a lot of photos on these quieter indoor days.

Tuesday morning we went for a walk on the road where the cabin is located.  It wasn't raining at that point and we thought it could be the best chance we would have for a walk.  Below is a photo I took on Beach Road during a visit to Back Lake in late October 2017.  See the blue heron?

Our friend Charlotte had invited us over to her cabin for lunch on Tuesday.  The photo below is from 2017.  It's always a delight to spend time with Charlotte, and she is such a great cook!  She served a delicious lunch as always.

Again, I got no pictures, but I do have these fairly nice Kindle photos of Charlotte's fall flower garden from a previous year.  I'm always surprised at how well her flowers do right into the fall.  She must have just the right location!

As we were leaving her cabin, the rain began.

It was a cozy afternoon and evening in Cabin 3.  Mr. T had brought a large supply of kindling and wood.  We'd also brought along plenty of amusements, from crafts to games to reading materials, DVDs and a jigsaw puzzle.  We had heard rain was predicted for the week, and it rained very hard Tuesday night.

Our Nevada daughter had sent one of these Vintage Baseball Games to her dad for his birthday earlier in September, so we gave that a try.  It turned out to be a really fun game.  So handy for traveling since it comes in a little tin!

Wednesday morning the rain had slackened, but it was still "dripping", as one of our daughters used to say.  We spent a cozy morning in the cabin.  We watched Anne of Green Gables (from a set of DVDs we had brought with us), during which I worked steadily at crafting a bunch of mailing envelopes from repurposed calendar pages.  These envelopes have turned out to be the perfect size for mailing out vintage sewing patterns that are ordered from my Etsy shop.

 These are examples of mailers I have made in the past, but some were exactly the same as these.  It's a fun and satisfying project, as I can't bear to waste the gorgeous calendars.

 This was an easy project to bring along when I packed for our getaway.

After a late lunch, we decided to try going for a hike here.

However, the trails were very wet from the previous night's rain.  We did go along one for quite a way, but it was much wetter than we liked.  One interesting thing we noticed is that the "bog bridges" across boggy areas of the trail were covered over with chicken wire.  What a great idea to provide traction on the wet wood and leaves on these bridges!

Rather than hike any further, we decided to head for the nearest town with a grocery store.  We were having people over for coffee the next afternoon, and needed to pick up some decaf.  We got a few other necessities as well, and also located a Walgreen's where we could get a new camera card.  Ours was filled up!

We had seen the view above not long before we reached the trailhead.  The Connecticut River was racing through a tunnel of glorious fall foliage, pretty even on an overcast late afternoon. But I knew my Kindle would never do it justice.  We had to wait until the return trip, with the replacement camera card in place, to get this photo.

It was another quiet, cozy evening on Wednesday night.  I can't even remember for sure what we ate for supper that night, but I can tell you that it would have been quick and easy.  That's definitely my cooking style on a getaway!

To be continued ... The last installment will cover Thursday and Friday.  Stay tuned!

Friday five ~ August 30

Some weeks Friday seems to roll around very quickly.  This week it seems to have taken a bit longer.  I am looking forward to the weekend!  No concrete plans as yet, other than having a friend over for supper tonight; we aren't even sure yet if my hubby will have Monday off.  But weekends are always a nice respite!

Without further ado, here's my Friday five:

1.  A nice change in the weather made it cool enough to bake cookies last Friday.  I had bought some of these baking chips on clearance at Walmart.

Have you seen them?  Here's the description:

I was quite surprised that they contained no artificial flavors.  All I tasted was salted caramel, but still I assumed artificial flavors were used.  Guess I didn't read the bag too thoroughly!

I used the cookie recipe on the back of the bag.  Here's the link:  Sea Salt Caramel Chip Cookies.  I made them quite a bit smaller than specified and I formed them into balls rather than dropping them.  l also used the Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour.

After so much hot, humid weather where one couldn't even think of turning on the oven, it was nice to be able to bake.

2.  A great time with friends on Saturday as we were invited to a get-together to see their family members visiting from out of state.  This is what we like to do ourselves when our faraway family is able to visit -- we try and host a get-together where they can see a lot of family and friends at one time.  I took along this  S’mores Pizza, plus a tortellini salad.

As mentioned in a previous post, it took less than 3 minutes for this dessert to disappear!

3.  A beautiful afternoon on Sunday for a hike to a peaceful lake.  Sometimes one just needs to be near water.  That's how it was for us and we tried to store it up for the week to come.  Something about that sailboat just speaks peace to my heart. 

4.  Seeing God answer prayer for wisdom this week.  When I'm outside my comfort zone, I might tend to ask someone who is comfortable in a specific area for advice.  This time my hubby was working on a job site where he had no cell service.  I briefly thought of consulting someone else, but the Lord impressed upon me that He is wisdom and that He promises to give wisdom when we ask.  There was no need to rely upon anyone but Him.  What a blessing to see how He answered my prayers!

Delightful graphic from Abby at Little Birdie Blessings

5.  Nicer weather this week made it possible for me to work on some of my projects outdoors at the patio table on the back deck.  (We bought this table toward the end of last summer and I hadn't really thought of it as more than a place to eat.  But it's a nice large rectangular table, perfect for working on many different kinds of projects.)  Here's some of what I did:

* Planned menus and made my grocery list

* Worked on my Sunday School lesson

* Made some mailing envelopes to package orders from my Etsy shop, using repurposed calendar pages.  I made 5 larger envelopes and 1 of the smaller ones.  This is a project I plan to take up north when we go at the end of September.  If we get some rainy days (and it would be truly surprising if we didn't), I will work on a bit of envelope making.  They are easy once I get started.

Back of a larger envelope

Front of the same envelope

Back of smaller envelope

Front of smaller envelope

* Did some work in my scrapbook journal.
 
I'm currently using this as a place to journal my study of this book: Make Room for What You Love.  Inching my way through this book one question at a time has enabled me to work in my scrapbook journal much more regularly.


Oh, what an encouragement this book has been to me!  I've been so blessed by this thought:

And I really find myself thinking about it when I am about to set something down in a place where it doesn't really belong.  Try this for yourself and see if it doesn't help!

Yes, it truly has been a blessed week!  What are some blessings you've seen in your own life this week?