Christmas Ornaments, Past and Present

I enjoy a colorful handmade Christmas tree. I have never really liked the plain old shiny balls that always covered our tree when growing up. After decorating it she would put angel hair on the tree, covering it from top to bottom. It's kind of pretty if you like the colored spider web look.

Years ago when I first got married we had our first live tree. My mom gave us some leftover ball ornaments for the tree. One of the first things I remember doing wall cleaning off all the chipped paint on some of the ornaments. I had seen in a magazine how to redo old glass ornaments with colored water and using shank buttons and glue to cover and seal the hole. They were pretty, but they were really heavy and had to be hung on very strong branches.

That same year I had bought the cutest set of clothespin and balsa wood ornaments that you punch out, paint and glue together. That was 37 years and two husbands ago. :) Ever since that first Christmas I have always tried to make something new to hang on the tree and sometimes to give as gifts, if they happen to be really cute. I have missed a few years in the past, but I am trying to pick it back up again.

My children are married with families of their own and I have given each of them a few of my treasured hand made ornaments. I have also started making some new ones again for my tree and some extras to send to the kids to add to their collection of handmade ornaments. Which brings me to the ornaments I am making this year.
I found the projects on Michaels project pages.

I am making the Star Santas from wood cut outs and not the ceramic stars. I think they are really cute. My other ornament this year is the Mr and Mrs Snowman faces. I found large glass balls at thrift store and thought they would be perfect for this project. When I get them finished I will post a picture of them here.

New Look

OK. I have decided to try and give my blog a more appealing look. Even though I might like purple (A LOT). It wasn't very good for a blog and trying to read. I hope the new look is a bit easier to see and read without your eyes crossing. It's really important to me try and make this blog work, if for no one else but for me. 

It's more like a journal of my life and the projects that I enjoy creating or remaking.

The other day along with the sewing accessories I had stopped at a different thrift store and as always looking for sewing related materials. Instead I found some large size gold glass Christmas balls and some ugly gold snowflakes. I intend on spray painting the snowflakes white and covering them in white glitter. The balls I have already painted them with baby blue enamel paint, two coats. I saw this idea on Michael's.com in their project area. I am going to paint girl and boy snowmen on them. They are so cute. Also I have some wooden stars I got last at the end of the year close out sales. I have painted them red. They will soon look like Santas. Yes, I got the same idea from Michael's project area. I think they have some good projects. 

I have two bags bags of the round wooden clothes pins. I haven't come up with anything that just jumps out and says "make me, make me". If they were flat I would make a few of the reindeer. I really enjoy making ornaments and giving them to my children and grandchildren. That way when I am long gone, they can say " I remember Mema made this" Or "ya know, Mema is up there watching us."  Yes, I can become very sentimental at times. Will post pictures when they are done.

Accessories For Sewing

While out shopping the other day I went to one of the local thrift stores that I enjoy rummaging through. I am usually looking for fabric or an old used sewing machine that I just can't do without. I just happen to find a few little sewing items. The lady said they had just put them out the day before. The best find in this picture is in the up left corner of the picture. It is a Creative Feet Satinedge foot worth about 24.95.   I can  hardly wait to find something to sew to be able to try it out. The little blue thing in the lower right hand corner is a very old needle threader. Needless to say the first time I used it the little wire broke. But that's ok because all three of the clover chalks are in good and unbroken condition. I think there might be a holder for the chalk, but just little bit of painters tape helps keep the chalk off the fingers for now.

all this for 2.75

Since we are talking accessories I just have to show off my two tackle boxes that I got from Wal Mart about ten years ago. When I bought my Viking I found out that it had "feet".  All kinds of feet. At last count I have about 25 different feet for my machine and Yes, I have used just about everyone of them on some kind of project or another. There are still one or two I would like to have but for now I am happy using the ones I have.

This is how I keep up with feet and needles for my Viking #1+

This where I keep the feet that are too big to fit in the small  box

This side is very useful for needles

I really have trouble trying to figure out how to arrange pictures and words while doing a post. As you can see I have a variety of different needles ranging from twin needles to wing needles.  

The pictures below are of the box that holds most of my sewing feet. I keep it right in front of me on a shelf within arms reach so I am able to change the feet quickly with whatever project I am working on.

The little slots in this box are a perfect fit for most of the

feet that I have.

 I have tried to place the pictures side by side but they just won't do it.  I am still finding my way around blog land.

Pie Crust Pile-Up / Tyler's Quilt

I have decided to try my hand again at making another quilt. I think I will eventually try to make one for each of my four grandchildren, then one for each of my three children if they want one.

I went to my local fabric store here in town and bought a quilt book with patterns and one pattern. I have decided to try the pattern "Pie Crust Pile-Up" Thick Crust in the twin bed size. I am currently making a conscious effort to stick with making squares for now. As I found out while making Rhea's quilt top just keeping lines going straight and having the rows come out even was a task. Of course that was a queen size top rather large I think for someone to tackle their first time out making a quilt top, which she now has in her  possession and won't let me have back.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I went to JoAnn's on Friday to pick out fabric. I spent about an hour looking through, mixing and matching reds, and blues. The background is white. Just as I was about to leave the fabric department I saw the "bundles". Perfect. There they were three bundles of red, white and blue fabrics. After all that time hunting for the right colors and there they were all along. Next time I shop for a project I will hit the "bundles" first as I am not the best at mixing and matching colors.  I still have to purchase the fabric for the borders, binding and backing. With this being Columbus Day weekend I plan on going back to JoAnn's tomorrow and seeing what I can find and use my coupons. I used JoAnn's coupons on the fabric below and saved a pretty good bit. So with any luck I'll save good tomorrow too.

Princess Pillowcase

You can't have a quilt and not have a matching pillowcase. So, I gathered up all the scraps left over from making the princess quilt. I fiddled with it for a couple of hours and found an arrangement I could live with. I only wish that I had purchased the seafoam green fabric before I had started on the cutting and sewing of the pink fabric to the quilt.  The back of the pillowcase is what was left of the seafoam green. The pillow case blends much better. What do you think?

Princess Pillowcase

Finished Dress

Jameslee's pillowcase dress.

Jameslee and Great Aunt Terry

Was just going through a couple of posts and realized that I never posted pictures of Jameslee's dress finished.

Motivation or Lack Thereof

Today I took a few minutes to read the post of FB friend. I realized it sounded a lot like me that she was describing.  I understood what she meant about makeup not being a top priority as long as you are dressed nice and your hair looks good. She was talking about not like what she saw in the mirror. Her weight. Growing up I never had a problem with weight. I guess I was one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately that makes it even harder for me now to try and lose weight. I have a couple of medical problems that interfere with my desire to try. I have fibromyalgia and clinical depression. Recently my doctor told me he is going to test me for diabetes the next time I come to see him. So now my health is in trouble, seriously. I haven’t even told my husband, because he is the type that tries to monitor what I eat and don’t eat, if I exercise or don’t. I just don’t want him nagging at me because it won’t help. I have to decide to do this on my own.

 What do you do when you think that trying to lose weight is a lost cause? I am now 57, very overweight and take medications that don't help when one tries to lose weight.  I don’t even wear shorts anymore except at home. I wear capris, they cover me down past my knees.

Me at the Cobb County Fair Nov.'11
with the grandkids

What I need is motivation and I don’t have any. I’m not even sure how to get motivated anymore. Suggestions anyone? I live in a 55 & up community. At our local clubhouse there are numerous activities that go on where one can attend, like walk aerobics classes, three days a week and swim exercises 5 or 6 days a week. I just can’t get motivated to be up before 9:00 when the classes start. Now that’s disgusting. At less that ¼ mile and I could walk or even ride my bike, I lack to motivation or desire to go.