Ornament Countdown Day 23 and 24 Last Ornament of the Season

Well its been a busy few days but I needed to make my one last ornament.  This will be it for the year and believe it or not I look forward to doing more next year.  Its been great and I feel like I have gotten so many great new idea to make next year an even better Christmas Ornament Countdown.

Ornament Countdown Day 22 or Here's One For The Boys

I am really trying to stay focused on the cooking and the cleaning but since I made the snow girl ornaments it seemed only fair to make ones for the boys, so of course I abandoned my chores once again to dig into some more ornament crafting fun.  After this one I have one more to go and I will have to force myself to stop making them.  I may need a craft intervention.  Please call Dr Drew!!!!!!!

Ornament Countdown Day 21 or Stop Making Ornaments And Start Cleaning

Christmas is a few short days away and I, like everyone else, have tons of things to do but I seem to spend more time sitting with my Cricut making ornaments and way less time cleaning, cooking and getting ready for the big day.  I tell myself I need to stop making ornaments and get busy getting ready for Christmas but I cannot seem to stop myself.  I will be dusting or washing the floor and my mind wonders to my happy place, sitting in my craft room creating, cutting and gluing.  I  way to often abandon my household chore and make my way up to my sanctuary to create just one more ornament.

Since my blond snow child ornament seemed to represent my daughter and grand daughter I decided to make one to represent my daughter-in-law and my other grand daughter.  I have already thought of others to represent my grandsons.  Wow, see I really can't stop.  I guess no cleaning for me today. 

Ornament Countdown 19 and 20 or Wow Where Does The Time Go

I never got a chance to blog yesterday.  Way too much to do and not enough time to do it in.  The one thing that I always find time to do is read.  My daughter recently raved about a book she was reading Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, so I decided to give it a try.  Its about a childless couple who move to Alaska to grieve their failures in life.  The first night of snow they make a girl out of snow using a scarf and hat that they had.  The next morning the snow child is gone and so is the scarf and the hat.  After that they often see a little blond girl roaming the forest in the brutal cold wearing the hat and the scarf.  The girl disappears each spring but returns in the winter at the first snow storm.  The plot thickens and the author does an excellent job in moving you along in the story.  I loved every single page.

So the story inspired me to create my own snow child ornament.

Ornament Countdown Day 18 or Good Friends Are Hard To Find

My husband Ken grew up in Woodside, Queens, NY and one of his best friends was Bob.  They went to the same  grammar school, high school and even college.  Ken met me and Bob met Valery and we had tons of double dating fun. We were even in each others wedding parties,but along the way life happens and our friendship drifted apart for over 20 years.  Aside from a Christmas card we had very little contact with them for all that time.  We reconnected with them a few years ago and have been making some new memories and its like we had not been apart for all those years.  They are truly good, kind people who have been extremely generous to Ken and myself.  So because it was the holiday season and I have been dedicating my time to ornaments, I thought I would make some special ornaments for our special friends Bob and Valery.

Bob and Valery love to travel so to give them some reminders of their travels each year at Christmas I made them some ornaments representing some places that they have been.

Ornament Countdown Day 17 or Battery Operated Only Please

One of my biggest fears is fire.  My fear of even the tiniest of  flames is the joke of most of my friends.  They know never to buy me a candle because I would never ever light it unless we had a black out and even then I would have to sit on top of it in case it burst into a wildfire.  Sick and Sad.

A while ago some friends invited me to go to a Japanese restaurant, I had never been.   As we walked in to this particular restaurant I noticed that every seat surrounded a Hibachi table. I had heard of them so I was a bit nervous but thought I just needed to go with the flow and not make a scene.  We sat down and after taking our order, the Hibachi chef created a huge explosion of fire in the middle of the grill inches from where I sat.  At first I tried to keep my panic at bay but as the flames grew bigger and the knifes started flying without realizing it I started moving further and further away from the table. Before long I was sitting on a chair halfway across the room and everyone in the room was looking at me. So much for not making a scene.  My friends could not stop laughing.  I must have looked really ridiculous, like something out of a Seinfeld episode but this time instead of Kramer it was me looking like an idiot.  At the time I saw nothing funny about it but now looking back I am sure I was amusing to watch, dodging fire and letting out a scream or two when the flames shot up to their highest.


So to represent my fear of fire I have a candle ornament.  Thankfully its not real.

Ornament Countdown Day 16 or A Look At Modern Day Fashion

Going out shopping this close to Christmas is both a joy and a curse.  Its fun to participate in all the sales, so many great bargains out there. The curse is dealing with all the crazies.  Pajama's are always a great draw for people this time of the year.  Around every corner of practically every aisle in every clothing store are stacks of PJ's.  I get it.  They are cute, comfy and relatively inexpensive all great reasons to put them on at the end of a day and snuggle up cozy, in bed. 

So when did the PJ's of bedtime become daytime appropriate garb.  Everywhere I go I see people walking around  in their pajama's.  There is no place that I have not seen them.  I saw two ladies in PJ's waiting for a bus the other day.  I have seen them pumping gas, doing grocery shopping, in the mall with their families.  When I see them my first thought is, did they put them on fresh that morning or did they sleep in them all night and then get up and  leave the house in them and then do they sleep in them again that night?  YUCK, I just don't get it.   My favorite PJ sighting, I was outside one of my local convenient stores.  I was waiting for my husband who had run in to get some milk.  This PJ Princess emerged from her car. She was a head to toe vision of fleece.  She had on a pink fleece nightgown with a white snowmen pattern, topping off a pair of blue fleece pants with Santa's and HO HO HO's.  The outfit was completed with fleece trimmed flip, flops and a green fleece head band.  As I watched her walk past my car she glanced in the window of the store, stopped and started fussing with her makeup and hair.  WHAT!!!!!!! was she not noticing how the rest of her looked.

Oh well it could be just me, so when you are out and about, look for a PJ sighting, it won't take long.


My orament today is Christmas stocking, the one thing she was not wearing in fleece.

Ornament Countdown Day 15 or Hug A Child Today

There are no words to describe the sadness of yesterdays tragedy in CT.

Ornament Countdown Day 14 or You Can Never Trust A Clown

I love to read, and my daughter suggested a book called The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Now I am not a fan of the circus so I am not sure that I would like it but its certainly worth a try.  Just the title of the book conjured up my circus memories that were not all that great. 

My first encounter with the circus was when I was about 7, my mother and dad were taking my sister and I to The Ringling Brothers circus for the first time.  It was at the old Madison Square Gardens in NYC (I am giving away my age on this one).  We were extremely excited.  As an extra treat before the circus, we were going to eat out which we rarely did, since money was so tight.  Both my mother and dad ordered pork.  I have no memory of what my sister and I had.  So we finished our meal and off to the circus we went.  Our seats were so high up and I remember how scared I was looking down onto the circus arena from where we sat.  We had all just gotten comfortable when my mother became violently ill, she got up and went racing down the steep stairs in search of the nearest bathroom.  Not long after my father also became ill.  Because of the circumstances my sister and I were left alone for most of the afternoon as my mother and father ran to the bathroom. Thankfully no one walked away with us.  Needless to say there was no good memories about that day.

Years later my husband and I took my daughter to the circus at new Madison Square Garden and for four hours (I had forgotten how long it was) she complained.  Well you guessed it she hated it and so did we.  Then along came my son. When he was five he begged to go to the circus.  By this time we had moved to upstate NY and it was playing at the Glens Falls Civic Center.  YIKES the last thing I wanted to do go to another horrible four hours of circus hell but I knew he deserved to have the experience at least once.  I decided it would be fun for just the two of us to go, so I picked him up after school and we went to a circus matinee.  Remembering my childhood nose bleed seats, I was able to get us tickets in the second row right in the middle of all the circus action.

My son unlike my daughter loved every aspect of the event. I was seeing the circus in a whole new light and  was thinking, wow, not as bad as I thought.  The first two hours flew by.  At the intermission we decided to get a snack.  I had come directly from work to pick him up and had not eaten much all day and was starving.  My son got some cotton candy and I got a big tub of popcorn.  As we returned to our seats the circus parade was just starting.   As each act walks around the arena they stop along the way and wave at the crowd.  I was not paying any attention to what was going on because I was woofing down my popcorn like I had not eaten in a week.  All of a sudden I hear everyone around me laughing, I look up, over, my giant tub of popcorn and see a clown directly in front of me mimicking me eating popcorn but in an extremely exaggerated way.  My son could not stop laughing and I was totally embarrassed and tried to shrink down in my seat as far as I could for the next two hours.  That really was the end to my circus not so fun.  I will be fine with never, ever, going to the circus again.

So today I have an elephant ornament to celebrate my not so great circus experiences.

Ornament Countdown Day 12 and 13 or A Not So Great Christmas Memory

YIKES missed blogging yesterday.  Been really under the weather.  Not the best time of the year to get sick.  I remember a Christmas when I was 5 or 6, our family's Christmas present were tickets to Radio City to see the Christmas show.  The tickets were for Christmas day which made it an even better gift.  I woke up Christmas morning so sick.  High fever, sore throat, listless but I still wanted to go.  Of course my mother said no.  Since the tickets were already paid for, my Dad took my sister and asked a neighbor across the street and his daughter Judy to go.  I was so sad, and the worst was I really hated Judy so the fact that she was taking my place was even worse.  I was miserable the whole time they were gone and I really hoped that the show sucked but they all came home all excited about how great it was. 

Oh well thats life I guess. 

So my ornaments today have really nothing to do with my story.

Ornament Countdown Day 11 or Everything Old Is Still Just Old

Vintage or Antique in my book, just means old.  Although I can appreciate the beauty of an old mirror I cannot get passed the fact that hundreds of people looked at their reflection in that same mirror before me and most of them are dead.  When I see an old quilt hanging in a window of an antique store I can admire the workmanship but have issues with the fact that many people have laid on that quilt before me or an old locket made out of hair of someone who has died.  YIKES that is all way too creepy for me. What I do love is the look of vintage or antique in a new piece of furniture or jewelry. 

I have created these vintage inspired ornaments which reflect the days of old without actually being old.

Ornament Countdown Day 10 or Making My Cheap Tree Look Not So Cheap

I finally got my tree debacle figured out and my tree stress is gone.  I found a really, really cheap pre-lit tree at Walmart for $39.98.  Can you believe it?  I went from $140 to $39.98.  Aside from it being $100 dollars less it is a much better tree.   Its 6.5 feet, a foot shorter then the previous one but it seems all around so much smaller, which was fine with me.  It certainly is not a lush tree (again it was only $39.98) but to me it looks kind of rustic so the ribbon I have used in past years did not seem to fit on my cheap rustic tree.  So when I was in Walmart I purchased four rolls of red and white polka dot 2 inch ribbon to wrap around the tree to give it a more country/cottage Christmas look.

My Christmas tree topper also did not fit so I decided to make one to carry through my country/cottage rustic theme.

Step 1
Cut out three 8 inch stars and three 9 inch stars.  I used my Cricut machine but they can also be done by creating star templates and just trace them 3 times for each size.

I chose to do the 9 inch stars in yellow and used a turquoise for the 8 inch star.

Step 2
Using Mod Podge I glued the three 9 inch stars together and then did the same with the three 8 inch stars.  Be careful when you layer each star that you line them up perfectly with the star below it. 



                                 
Step 3
Let each completed star dry for a few hours.  It will become hard.  Now you will need to glue the turquoise 8 inch star to the yellow 9 inch star again using Mod Podge.

I give it another coat of Mod Podge and let it sit over night to dry.
Step 4
Now its time to embellish the star. Because I wanted a country/cottage rustic look I glued on some yellow left over lace that I had and some different size buttons. 


                                
Step 5
I glued some ribbon to the back so I could tie it to the top of the tree. 

If you want to see the star from the front and back of the tree you could duplicate the process making an additional set of stars and then connect the ribbon to both stars, slipping it over the top of the tree instead of tying it on like I did.

My now, not so cheap looking tree has a festive star to make it complete.



Ornament Countdown Day 9 or Gift Overload

I woke up this morning not feeling all that great.  I feel a holiday cold coming on. So even though I was not feeling my best I wanted to start wrapping some gifts.  Every year I start out with the intentions of scaling back, and I really thought I had until I started taking presents out of the different places that I had them stashed.  As they started piling up I realized that once again I overdid.

My biggest problem seems to be my stocking stuffer purchases.  I end up with so many things for my grandchildren that I have had to move  from  stockings to huge sacks.

Oh well I truly do enjoy shopping and giving to people  I love.  I guess I will have to remember to scale back next year. 

Because I love gift giving so much I have made more present ornaments. 

Ornament Countdown Day 8 or Ode To The Cupcake

So, when I was out food shopping I came across Coffee-mate Peppermint Mocha sweetener.   I have certainly seen it in previous years and have been tempted to buy it but I was excited to see this year that it came in a sugar free version, so I purchased it.  It was such a let down, it was just not up to the taste that I had anticipated and honestly I am not so sure why I was so concerned about sugar free because with my coffee and sugar free Peppermint Mocha sweetener I was sucking down a big over iced cupcake.

Oh the cupcake, the one thing in my life that rarely lets me down.  Some of course are much better then others but even the not so good ones are one of my favorite treats.  My love affair with cupcakes started when I was just a little girl.  My mom, the best baker in the world (or so I thought as a child) would make these yummy vanilla cupcakes from scratch.  The best part was that she would flavor the icing using the juice from a maraschino cherry jar and then would top it off with a maraschino cherry.  YUM!!!!  I can still hear my mom screaming at my sister and I as we tried to steal more cherries from the jar. I think later on maraschino cherries were one of the worst products containing red dye 2 which was taken off the market in 1976 for causing all kinds of bad things in people.  Between my sister and I, we sure did consume our fair share of Red Dye #2. YIKES, those were the days.  Fun times.

Today, cupcakes are beyond popular.  There are cupcake shops open everywhere.  There is even a show on TV called Cupcake Wars.  A local bakery in Albany, NY competed on the show.  In the first round she added salt to her batter instead of sugar.  Hmmmm, not such an enjoyable treat.  Needless to say she was the first one to get the boot. 

Believe it or not my favorite cupcake (other then my moms, red dye laden ones from my youth) are not from one of the million bakery shops around the world, but from a baking company called Entenmmans.   Entenmanns,  mass produces, sells and ships their baked goods in the Northeast.  Their regular items are OK but for me their cupcakes are awesome.  They are only produced for holidays like, Halloween, Valentine Day, Easter or Christmas.  I anticipate them for months before each holiday and when they arrive at my local grocery store I can spot them from two aisles over.

Well I guess its time for another cupcake and coffee with no sugar sweetener.

 To celebrate the cupcake,  I have made a cupcake ornament.

Ornament Countdown Day 7 or Oh Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree Wherefore Art Thou?

I woke up having some Christmas stress today.  My phony bologna tree from the last five years lights, bit the dust this year so I stupidly chucked it.  If I would have realized what was out there I should have kept the tree and stuck some lights on it. 

So the choices that I found are:

Pre-Lit Tree - $250 to $500  - Because I am cheap through and through I just cannot spend that kind of money on something that I use one month each year.  The higher end is almost the price of a couch.  YIKES

Tree with no Pre-Lit under $250- Because I am lazy I pass those right by.  I have spent way too many years untangling lights before and after Christmas to want to deal with it.

Super Cheap Tree Pre-Lit  $50- $75  I am so interested in these.  They meet both my lazy side as well as my cheap side but because I waited way too long there are none of these left. 

Pre-Lit Tree - $100 - $200 -  This is the one that I ended up settling for.  It was $140 on sale which was OK.  The only issue is, I HATE IT.  Its too tall 7 1/2 feet which would not be so bad except, it's one of those skinny trees, so its really wobbly.  The pre-lit lights are kind of attached in clumps so its looks like I put them on myself.  I have stared at the tree undecorated for 2 days hoping that at some point I would fall in love and at times, I feel myself warming up to it. I really want to give the tree a chance, but then one of my cats brush up against it and it starts to wobble.  I break up with it all over again.  Its time to end this sad sick tree relationship and move on. 

I am on a quest today to find a better pre-lit tree.  We will see how it goes. 

Today I have attached the tags that I make.  Both sets have tree tags, keeping with my tree theme for the day.

Ornanent Countdown Day 6 or HO HO HO more like NO NO NO

The Christmas my daughter was a year old, my brother-in-law Johnny decided he wanted to play Santa.  I was not that keen on the idea since I had taken my daughter to see Santa at the mall the week before and she would not go anywhere near Santa. She was petrified just at sight of him.  Johnny said he had already bought the Santa suit and really wanted to start a yearly tradition.  He got my mother on board and between the two of them they wore me down, so I reluctantly agreed.

Christmas morning, early, my daughter and I were sitting under the tree when we heard the first sounds of Santa.  It started with the jingling of bells, followed with lots of HO HO HO's and then an indescribable sound like glass cracking.  The glass cracking sound got louder as it got closer and the HO HO HO's and the bells seemed to fade into the background.  Johnny rounded the corner into the living room covered from head to toe wearing something that looked like a giant red garbage bag.  My daughter screamed in horror at the sight of this loud, plastic Santa, that had just invaded the room.  He sat down lowering her onto his lap. As her tiny body clashed with his plastic garbage bag body the glass breaking sound loudly erupted,  she screamed louder wanting no part of him.  Needless to say, the Christmas tradition of the Red Plastic Bag Santa ended that day.

                                     

Today's ornament is a Christmas tree done in the same fashion as my other ornament.   This one has a tiny present that sits under the tree.

Ornament Countdown Day 5 or Tis The Season Of The Grouch

I honestly do most of my Christmas shopping online.  Its quick, its easy and the best part is that I don't have to deal with those nasty, cranky people spreading their Christmas grouch.. 

My Top 4 Christmas Grouches of the Season

#4. Man-i-ac Grouch.- This is a guy who only shops once a year.  If he is in back of you, he is mumbling, shifting, and complaining constantly.  Its obvious that he is annoyed that he is there even though  he probably only buys presents one stinking day a year.  If he is in front of you the sales person usually has to walk him through the process of paying.  What cave was he under for the past 12 months.

#3. Kid Overkill Grouch - I honestly cannot blame this shopper for being grouchy.  She comes shopping with at least 4 kids hanging off her cart.  Every few feet one of them falls off, usually followed by lots of crying.  In the beginning she is patient and talks to them in a controlled sing song voice.  By the time she gets to the check out her voice has become a booming sound system that could cause an avalanche on Mt Kilimanjaro. 

#2. Senior Grouch - OK so I really hate to make any disparaging comments about the elderly since I am  few steps away from being one myself  but if you get one of them in back of you on line, its usually an all out complainfest.  They start out pleasant enough.  They smile maybe make a comment about the weather and then they suck you into there evil grouch web.  They complain about everything from the checkout person to the youth of america to the state of Medicare. 

 #1 pick for Grouch of the season is:

The TMI Grouch -  So your on line at the checkout.  The clerk says "How are you today?  Did you find everything that you needed" and I say "Fine thanks and how are you?"   Just asking how are you opens the flood gates to their whole entire life.  They are really tired ,  they were up all night,  they have been sick with a stomach flu for weeks, they have not had a day off lately, they hate their job, they need to hire more people.  YIKES its goes on and on and on.  At some point I am put into a trace and the next thing I hear is my car engine running, having no idea how I even got out of the building.

For me I am just staying home.


Since shopping seems to be my theme today my countdown ornament is a gift.

Ornament Day 4 or Does Anyone Really Like Gingerbread?

Gingerbread is a synonymous taste connected with Christmas but when was the last time you have ever seen anyone eat any?  Of course there are Gingerbread houses made from gingerbread, they come in kits that can be done with your family or for the very advanced house builder they are created from scratch and crafted into large beautiful structures that can delight the young and old alike, but really does anyone ever eat them? 

We often see gingerbread cookies at Christmas time but they are usually sugar cookies cut in the shapes of gingerbread boys and girls so that doesn't really count. 

Each year at Christmas time I buy the holiday flavors of coffee for my Keurig coffee machine.  It contains The Holiday Blend which is always gone first, French Toast is my favorite and gone quickly, even Eggnog seems to disappear,  yikes,  Gingerbread, not so much.  I find myself offering it to guests well into August and here it is Christmas season and I still have gingerbread K-cups left from last year.

So. I could be wrong but I am thinking that even though it seems to be an important part of the Christmas season no one really wants to eat it. What do you think???

So to celebrate the people who actually eat gingerbread.  I have created  Gingerbread Boy and a Gingerbread Girl ornaments.

They are made with scrapbook paper using my Cricut and Gypsy machines to cut out circles and the frames.  I layer the multiple shapes gluing them together with Mod Podge. The gingerbread boy and girl are cutouts that I found from K&Company.  I glued them on to the circles and finished them off with buttons, ribbons and ric rac.  A few coats of Mod Podge to create a durable surface. 

Ornament Countdown Day 3 or Where Oh Where Has My Little Cat Gone

Since my kids are grown I live with my husband Ken and our three indoor cats Priscilla, Pearl,and Kitty.   During our married life we have had a number of cat kids.  First there was Reggie and Jake, then Ollie and Al and for a time my daughters crazy cat Elizabeth Rose.  Except for Priscilla, Pearl and Kitty they have all gone to the great kitty litter box in the sky. 

One day years ago during a snowstorm when I went out to warm up my car Ollie got out of the house. My husband found him sitting huddled and shaking in one of our window wells probably hours after he made his escape.  That fateful day has forever changed our lives, because now Ken obsessively looks for the cats constantly. YIKES!!!!!!

Before he retired it was not too bad but now that he is home it has gotten much worse.  I walks into a room and find him on his knees with a flashlight looking under the bed  or as he enters a room he uses his eyes as a Feline Finder darting back and forth trying to locate a cat like a human GPS.  The best part is, that when I catch his bizarre behavior he never admits that he is looking for them.  He makes up the most crazy story known to man why he just happens be laying on his stomach with a flashlight looking under a bed.

Just last night, well actually during the night,  I was woken to his feet shuffling back and forth on the rug.  I can tell that its not his usual shuffle straight to the bathroom but its more like a shuffle then a stop and then a longer shuffle and then a stop.  I lay there thinking he will stop and I can go back to sleep but it continues.  It dawns on me what he is doing and I lose it.  I yell out YOUR LOOKING FOR THE STINKING CATS AGAIN?  No he says (and this is where one of his crazy excuses comes in) there is a light from the house in back that is keeping me up.  WHAT!!!!!  The house is over 1000 feet away from us and when your laying in bed there is no way you could ever see any light even if the light happened to be on, which is was not.  WOW has he now developed super powers that he can see through walls and envision lights shining that do not even exists?  If that's the case I wish he would use his super power skills to know where the cats are 24/7 and put us all out of our misery.  When I called him on it he gave a little chuckle and came back to bed.  At that point all three cats were up and as I heard Ken snoring, Priscilla was walking over my head for the 10th time.

Crazy, insane, mental health visit needed you are thinking, not me, I call it LIFE WITH KEN.

OK so since this story has nothing to do with ornaments I am sharing an ornament that I made a long time ago of my first cat Reggie who loved wearing his knitted Christmas hat, strange but true. 

Ornament Countdown Day 2

Since my theme this month is Christmas and specifically ornaments I decided to search the Internet to visit other sites so I could be inspired.  I found tons of wonderful ornaments out there.  Some so simple and sweet you could do them with your children, others, complex and really works of art.  I was really impressed with what I saw, but the one thing that I was not expecting to find was something called Link Parties.  These parties are hosted by a number of different blogger sites. 

Here's how it works. The host of the blogger site decides on the theme of their party.  It could be sharing Christmas traditions, cookie recipes or home decor ideas for the holidays to name a few.  One that I saw on The Shabby Nest  http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/2011/12/frugal-friday_29.html  has a Link Party called Frugal Fridays.  Every Friday Wendy Hyde who is interior designer invites other bloggers to share their items that they recycle or reinvent.  Using software that she has on her site called Linky you can link onto her site with your site, this allows whomever visits that site to link back up to your site.  So the sharing of blogger ideas are maximized.

Other sites that I saw with Link Parties were http://whipperberry.com/  and http://verydarkhorse.blogspot.com/2012/11/christmas-linky-party.html

There are many sites out there to share your ideas or get some new ones.  Looking around is fun.

My ornament that I would like to share today is a Quilting Ornament.  Its made similar to all my ornaments using my Cricut and Gypsy machines.   The thing that makes this one special is that I pieced paper together to form a tiny quilt and wrapped the raised spool of thread with yarn, attaching a needle that I made by cutting a section from a silver Christmas ornament hook.  

Christmas Ornament Countdown

I woke up to snow on the ground and the sound of the plow coming through.  Even though I am not a huge fan of snow like lots of my fellow upstate New Yorkers, I have to admit it really does increase my Christmas spirit.  So what says Christmas more then baking.  Cookies of all shapes and sizes decorated with icing, or sprinkled with colored sugar.  Pies and cakes and I cannot forget my friend Josie's awesome hot, fluffy, yummy rolls.  I am not a baker although I have been known to throw together a cookie or two from time to time.  So to celebrate the bakers in my life I have created a baking ornament.

This ornament is created by cutting out shapes using my Cricut machine along with my Gypsy machine which allows me to cut and size my shapes to the exact dimensions that I want.   I use scrapbook paper cutting each shape multiple times, stacking the paper using Mod Podge to hold it all together making it extremely durable.  The result is a kind of 3D look.  I embellished it with some tiny cookie cutters and buttons.  Its finished with a red check ribbon to hang from the tree.

Christmas Season 2012

So my Christmas season has begun.  I was excited and could not wait to decorate my Christmas tree.  So it was time to trek up to my attic to retrieve the ornaments.  I could see the ornament box way at the back in the far left corner of the attic.  I made my way tripping over my daughters Barbie Dream House from 1980 and my sons old Tonka truck, which he made me swear to never get rid of, cursing the entire time feeling all my Christmas spirit dissolving with every step.  I finally made my way to the box and dragged it down two flights of stairs to my family room.  .

There the box sat all tattered and dusty next to the pre-lit Christmas tree whose lights had failed me. Yikes this season was already not looking good.   From a distance I could hear the garbage truck coming and for a fleeting second I thought I should just chuck the tree and the ornaments and let them intermingle with all the turkey leftovers from miles around. 

Still in a bad mood I ripped open the box with a vengeance sending the cats running for cover.  As the flaps of the box opened and I look inside I feel the light of memories pouring from the contents.

As I wrap my hand around a Batman ornament I remember buying it for my son when he was three and how he has been hanging it on my tree every year for the last 30 Christmases.  I see the faux stained glass angel that my daughter painted at my kitchen table so many years ago.  The glittery teacup ornament that my friend Chris bought me one year after telling her how I had wanted it but thought it was too extravagant to buy for myself with money being so tight.  The friendship tree that my friend Eleanor gave me one year. As I hold it in my hand I think of her kindness and how I value the times that we have spent together.  I see the bits and pieces of foam and paper that make up the ornaments that my grandchildren have made for me and how I lovingly hang them on my tree year after year.  Each ornament brings back memories of such happy times in my life.  My good mood has returned and so has my Christmas spirit. 

So I have decided to make some new ornament memories this year and make some of my own ornaments for friends and family.