Real vs. Faux

I got an e-mail recently about the ornaments I posted. The question was not about the ornaments but about the tree. Was it real or faux? You'd think living in NH surrounded by trees that I would most certainly have a real tree but, here goes......--I have a faux tree. There I've said it!
We used to always have real trees but somewhere along the line it got really expensive and one year after Christmas I got a faux tree for very little and I've never looked back. I think it's the thrifty part of me that likes the faux trees because they really do pay for themselves after a few years. Plus I hate seeing the dried up trees after Christmas sitting in the snowbanks to be thrown out. It seems like such a waste.
Another reason I love it is because I love seeing my ornaments so I put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. I have been especially proficient at decorating trees this year. I have put up the tree, decorated it, undecorated it, took it down, put up another tree, decorated again! After seeing my old tree in my new family room with the cathedral ceiling I decided it was too small. So down it came and shopping I went and I love the new tree. I gave my old tree to my daughter's brother in law who is a new home owner.
And the tree skirt I made this past summer looks good under there. It's too bad it has to be mostly covered up.
My Mom used to tell us kids that the little elf near the top of the tree was there to watch over us and see who was bad and good. I don't know how he could since his eyes are closed! We still believed it though!

So what are you-real or faux. And please, don't ever use that other word, (fake)!!

Christmas Corners

Here are some more of corners of my home with some treasured Christmas decorations.

This is the tea pot, sugar and creamer that matches my Mom's tea cups. My sharp eyed daughter spotted these years ago at a yard sale.
Speaking of daughters, these are my daughter's first pair of ice skates. No double runners for her-she started out on single blade skates when she was about 5 years old. She had a little lawn chair that she would push in front of her for balance but she was quite the skater. My husband built a little rink next to the garage and would go out there and put water on it for nights on end to get enough ice built up. They loved it and I loved not having to drive them to local pond for skating.
These Christmas balls were made by my Mom. She was a sewing teacher and one of the arts she taught was smocking. I have a number of her ornaments on the tree but I like seeing these on the dining table.
This year I put a tree on my kitchen island. I stole the idea from Mary at Little Red House. I tied cookie cutters onto it and draped it with an aluminum garland that was on my tree as a kid. Then plopped it in a crock. I love how it looks in the kitchen.
Now show me some of your Christmas corners.

Christmas Ornaments

Haven't been able to post much in the past week. I work at a college, the cycle goes on, end of the semester, busy, busy busy, yadda, yadda, yadda. But the tree did manage to go up. I love Christmas ornaments and it's such fun each year to decorate the tree and handle all the ornaments and remember the memories associated with them. So here are some of my ornaments and little memories to go along.

This cluster of grapes ornament is really old. I have two of them; a red one and a blue one. They were my Grandmother's and then my Mom's.
I tend to buy ornaments when I travel. The first is from the Alamo and the second I got on Martha's Vineyard. The Martha's Vineyard one especially reminds me of the delight my daughter and I took in all the brightly painted cottages. The guys really weren't much interested. But my daughter and I LOVED them.I have many ornaments from friends near and far.
The League of NH Craftsmen sells an ornament every year and this is the one for 2007. I have been collecting them for 20 years.
I have also collected the White House ornaments for a number of years. My husband used to go to a conference every year this time of year and would get one for me each year.
So I hope you enjoyed the mini tour of some of my ornaments. Now show me yours!

The New Mantle

I now have three fireplaces after we put an addition on our home last spring and summer. And I love decorating mantles for Christmas so this was the first one I got decorated.I got everything white that I could find and propped them up here and I like how it looks. The large pitcher on the right comes from my aunt's farm and I treasure it. The other ones I bought at yard sales and consignment stores. This mantle is huge and the ceiling is high so after I had things set up I really wanted a mirror to prop up there for some height so I was about to go look in consignment store when I remembered the oak mirror that is part of a bureau in my daughter's old room. So off the bureau it came and up on the mantle it went and I love it. I think that's going to be a permanent resident there.
And yes, the plywood front on the fireplace is still there. When I asked my husband when we were going to finish the front of the fireplace he said, "I'm not ready yet"!! Now what does that mean? It pretty much still looks like this.
There is actually a gas fireplace in there though so at least I have that. Someday....

Let the Christmas Decorating Begin!

I love to decorate for Christmas so I'm sure you'll see many pictures of what I have done here in the coming weeks. I love seeing everybody else's decorations. But I'm going to start with a Christmas quilt I just finished.

One of the things I love about Blogging is getting inspiration from all of you out there and since I love to quilt I am partial to all the quilting blogs. Back in October I absolutely fell in love with Nicole's Halloween quilt at her blog, Sister's Choice. She referenced the Debbie Mumm book, Seasons, she got the pattern out of which surprised me because I have that book and didn't remember seeing such a wonderful quilt in it. I quickly got the book out and checked out the pattern again. Nicole's quilt is much better than Debbie's I think. Anyway, I had some wonderful Christmas fabric I was dying to do something with and Nicole's Halloween quilt got me going. So I shamelessly copied her and I love the quilt.
My long arm quilter did a wonderful pointsetta and holly leaf design for the quilting which I love. It's just a happy quilt. So thanks Nicole and I'll definitely be making a Halloween quilt sometime in 2008!

A Christmas Glimpse

It's a good thing I am communicating through this blog because if I actually had to talk to anyone I couldn't. I have been down with a bronchitis-lost-my-voice-illness that has knocked me for a loop. Before it hit though I had gathered some fabrics for a quick Christmas quilt I was going to make.
I have this wonderful Marcus Brothers print that I started with. It has just great images and colors to work with.
Then I had fun looking through my stash and pulling some fabrics. So here's just a glimpse of a work in progress. Now if I can stop coughing myself to death here I might be able to finish it. I'll be sure to post pictures when it is done. In the meantime, bring on the tea and antibiotics!

Merry Christmas

Since there is much going on this weekend I wanted wish all my blogging friends a Merry Christmas!

I Know What I Said, But.....

I said recently that I have too many ornaments. But of course while at the thrift store today on another quest I found these. Jen at The Cottage Nest has also confessed to loving the vintage ornaments so I am not alone out here.

I just love the Shiny Brite vintage clear ornaments and there they were for $6 for all of them so they went home with me. I just love them!

Admiration

I have been reading on several blogs about everyone's love of Matthew Mead's magazine which I was able to pick up almost as soon as it came out.

I am lucky enough to live in beautiful NH, as does Matthew Mead, so as I was cooking supper last night I caught a commercial with his name mentioned on the tv. I went running to the living room to see what it was about and found that later that evening on the local tv channel's Chronicle show, Matthew was going to be featured! So I watched it and found it fascinating to see how he works and to see how he and his staff came up with some of the ideas in the magazine. Everything was so simple and so beautiful and classy. I'd like to think I could achieve the same for myself but that will probably never happen!

A Productive Weekend

I had a pretty productive weekend without leaving the house. I love those kinds of weekends. I was able to get the rest of the Christmas decorations up including my Santa collection.

Then I put one by the fireplace. You can also get a glimpse of one of the cat's Christmas stocking hanging there. Both cats have their own stockings which people seem to think is nutty but I'd like to hear from those of you with pets as to how many of you out there have stockings for your pets so drop me a note.

And what could be better on a Sunday afternoon than a snack and a nap on a quilt.

Smocked Ornaments

Ranae of Ewe Creek Cottage asked for some closer pictures of the smocked ornaments that my Mom made so here they are. She was a sewing teacher and this is one of the skills that she taught.

I Have Too Many Ornaments

I have been decorating various rooms and trees for Christmas and I have discovered I have too many ornaments! I know some of you would say that isn't possible but I have reached my limit. I tend to look for the old Shiny Brite ornaments at yard sales and antique stores and I am especially fond of the ones without the silvering inside from WWII era. I inherited a lot of my Mom's and I am always looking for others. I loaded our tree up and there is not a spare inch left yet still, there are ornaments with no home. But hopefully this will be a temporary problem. We have plans to turn our one car garage into a two car garage with a family room above so my dream is to have a giant tree where all the ornaments will have a home. Perhaps by next Christmas-stay tuned.

In the meantime, I have put some of the ornaments my Mom made in a red bucket on a little chair that I love. My Mom was a sewing teacher and one of the things she taught was smocking and she made these wonderful smocked balls. The great red bucket I got in Maine this past summer-I think it's Chinese-and the little chair came from a yard sale. I am still on the lookout for more of these child sized chairs. Along with a few more ornaments!

Proof of This Blog Name

If anyone wondered why I chose this title for my blog here is the proof. I didn't take long after getting the tree up for Miss Penny to find the quilted tree skirt and Oscar is on one of his favorite perches where he can observe everything around him and rule like the king he thinks he is.

A Crafty Family

As I gather and sort all the Christmas decorations to put out I seem to come across not only the things I have made over the years but also many things my mother and aunts have made. So here are the Christmas stockings my Aunt Irene made many, many years ago. She not only made them for me but for my Mom and Dad, my sister, our boyfriends, my children and all my cousins. So when my kids got married I was able to pass along my Mom and Dad's stockings, who had passed away, to my son in law and daughter in law with their names stitched on them. My son and daughter in law are expecting their first child, my first grandchild, this Spring so my daughter decided that a stocking for the baby was in order so she went on a quest to find the pattern. My cousins, whose mother was the original creator of the stockings, did not know where the pattern was. She did manage to find the pattern by bringing the stocking to The Elegant Ewe our local knitting store and they had the pattern. So a tradition continues in this crafty family.

Christmas Sewing Marches On

I love making quilts but I especially love making quilts related to Christmas. So with my new Bernina I got started on some Christmas table runners. This is the first sewing machine I have ever bought for myself so I am very excited about it. This is also the first free motion quilting I have ever attempted so I was a little nervous about actually quilting on something besides a practice cloth but I surprised myself with my abilities and I am quite pleased. I hope the people I give these runners to like them.

Daughters and Teapots

In getting some of the Christmas decorations out this past weekend, I glanced at the china cabinet and saw my Lefton Green Holly teapot and teacups. My Mom gave me the teacups, which were originally given to her by one of her sisters, before she passed away and I love them. One time many years ago my daughter and I were at a yard sale when my daughter kept tugging at my shirt and pointing to something that was for sale. I could see it was a teapot, sugar and creamer but it was impossible to see what color or pattern it was through all the grease on it. But that determined little girl declared that it was like "Memere's teacups" and she was right. So we quickly paid $5 for them and brought it home and proceeded to de-grease them with Lestoil. Now whenever I see them I think of my Mom.