Inspiration Shot: New York Christmas

I almost forgot...I was in New York 10 years ago for News Years Eve.  What a fun adventure that was.


Rockefeller Center, New York City

Funny how those buildings make that massive Christmas tree look so small~

Show and Tell: My Christmas Tree

It seems funny but I've only had an 'adult' Christmas tree for a few years.  I lived out of a suitcase for many years and when I was at home I just pulled out my little two foot tree from my childhood. 

Now I own my own house and have my own big tree.  It's a pretty big deal.  So far it's not super duper full of ornaments but each year I manage to add a few more.

Yes, it's a fake tree but it's pre-lit and it goes together in 3 easy pieces, so I love it.  I'll never forget the year that my grandma got a real tree that ended up having caterpillar cocoons in it.  As it warmed up inside the house the caterpillers started hatching.  euwwwww!  It sort of turned me off of real trees.

Besides, call me crazy but I think that trees are meant to grow outside, for a very long time.  Not sit in a little pot of water inside our living rooms.

Anyway, onto less controversial subjects.  I was a musician in another life (as in up till age 25, don't worry, I'm not getting all Shirley McLain on you) so alot of my ornaments have a musical theme. 

Last year I started adding birds and icicles too.

My favourite part of the whole tree is the topper.  I love the way it looks like fireworks exploding.

So that's my tree!  Now I just have to put some presents under it and it will be good to go.  I'm already looking forward to the Boxing day sales to find more ornaments to add to it next year!

I won't even bother asking you  if you prefer real or fake because I know it'll be totally split down the middle.  More importantly....what do you put on the top of your tree?  Do you have an angel, a star, or something more creative?  Leave a comment and we'll see which one wins out!

~Merry Christmas~

Did you notice that I changed the music in the jukebox on the sidebar?
It's full of Christmas tunes for December.  Take a listen!

Whose glass is that?

Here's a fun and easy project to help keep everyone's glass in it's place when you have your family over for the holidays.

If your family sits to the table for Christmas dinner this is a fun way to do name plates too to make sure everyone sits where they're supposed to.

I made these many years ago but when they went in the dishwasher a lot of the work that went into them was washed away.  Every year since then I've said I was going to redo them so we could use them again...and now I finally have!! 

Here are the supplies you'll need:

along with access to an oven

Steps:
1) Clean your wine glasses and dry.  Then paint each family members name onto the wine glasses.  I used a very fine and high quality paint brush to avoid frustration.

2) Now just paint a small picture of something christmassy onto the other side of each glass.  I like to do something unique for each one but you could make them all the same if you like that matchy matchy thing.

I also tried to mix it up a little.  Some glasses just have one larger image and others have a whole cluster of small images.  (Also, some look like my 4 year old nephew painted them and some turned out quite nice~)

3) Keeping in mind that I'm using "Paint and Bake" paint, once you have all of your glasses finished you now place them in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes to bake.  Until the paint is baked it's water soluble and all of your artwork will be lost if washed.  Even though after they're baked they're supposed to be dishwasher safe, I recommend hand washing them.

4) After they've cooled down and the paint is set, the only thing left to do is to fill your glasses with some wine (or juice) and have a great night with your family. (add some wine gems from earlier this week and you'll really have a festive party)

I bought these paints off of the Home Shopping Channel in Canada ages and ages ago (I think maybe more than 10 years ago) and I can't find them online anymore.  However, they're a Tina Lewis product and she still regularly appears on the Shopping Channel as well as QVC and HSN.  I think these days she's more into scrapbooking though.  You can find her website here .  If you really like this project and can't find similar paint, email her and maybe she can tell you where to find the paints.  (I did a quick Google search on Paint and Bake and found a site that tells you how to do it with regular acrylic paint but I would be cautious and do some more research first)

I'll be linking up to the parties throughout the week so check out the linky party tab up top and check out all of the other great Christmas ideas out there. 

Don't forget to add your Spool Knitting to the Spool Party while you're up there clicking on tabs!

It really makes my day when you guys leave a comment so let me know what you think~

Inspiration Shot: Karnak

Have you ever spent Christmas somewhere that doesn't celebrate the holiday?  It's kind of a weird feeling.

Back in the 90's, I had a dream of spending the millennium New Year's celebration at the foot of the great pyramids in Egypt.  In order to do that I had to spend a few weeks leading up to New Year's Eve in Egypt.

What an incredible country.  The history is overwhelming and beyond amazing.  I love the shot below for so many reasons.   Number 1 is the repetition.  I'm a very symmetrical kind of gal, so this kind of thing really fascinates me.  Sphinxes are also just super cool creatures, so the more the merrier. 

Also, when I look at this shot, I'm reminded that if you want something to last forever, it has to be great!  "Mediocreness" won't cut it.



Karnak, Egypt

Do something great today~

Show and Tell: Wine Gems

Right before Halloween I saw something similar in a store for a crazy amount of money and I thought, 'Hey, I can do that!'....so I did.



Naked Wine Glasses

 


Christmassy Wine Glasses!

  The hardest part about this is making sure that none of them are the same ... oh, and cleaning up all the little seed beads that don't make it onto the wire~

Let me know what you think.  Someone I know will be getting a set that aren't quite so holidayish.  That way they can be used all year round!  How do you think these would go over for the beer drinkers out there?  Maybe they'd like a little pizazz on their beer bottles too~

Check out the linky party tab, I think I'll post these throughout the week~

Super Easy Felt Stocking

When I was in grades 2 and 3 I had the best teacher ever.  His name was Mr. Hambleton.  Sadly he passed away this year but I know that I'm not the only person out there who looks back fondly on the years spent with him.

Mr. Hambleton empowered his students to be creative, to use their imaginations, and to make their own choices.  When I look back on those years I can hardly believe the things he got us to do.  Our class was doing pottery (painted and in a kiln) and macrame while the other classes were still using crayons. 

One of the best, and most useful, crafts we did was Christmas stockings.  So...if I could make this in Grade 2 then you can definitely do it now.

Here's the one that I made for my baby sister when I was in grade 3, the one I made for myself in grade 2 is lost in the mountain of Christmas stuff at my mom's house but I still use it every year.

The stitching is a bit wonky in some parts, but come one, I was only 8 years old~

If you're ready to make your own felt stocking here are the supplies that you'll need:




You might want to add some pins and a chalk pen or other erasable marker too.

Steps:
1)Decide which colour will be your front and which your back.  Draw the outline of a stocking shape onto the piece of felt for your back.  My felt pieces were .3 metres (12 inches) wide but you can make these any size you want.

While you're at it you can cut a small rectangle for a hanger.  None of these measurements are exact.  Mine is about 1" X 6".

2)Place your backing felt on top of the piece you will use for the front of your stocking.  Trace around the back.  Now measure an inch in so that this piece will be slightly smaller.  Cut out the front of your stocking.

3) Stack your pieces with the front on top and the hanger in between in one corner.

4) This next step isn't really necessary, especially if you're doing this with kids, but I didn't want to be known my whole life for wonky stitches so I measured everything out for a blanket stitch.  I measured a half inch in from the edge and marked it with my chalk pen, and then I placed a pin in the felt every half inch so that I'd known where to place my stitches.

You can find a blanket stitch tutorial here .

5)Now all that's left is to stitch it up with your yarn, (you'll need a needle with a big enough eye to fit the yarn though, a darning needle will usually work) and then decorate it with fabric paint.  I used a nice glittery silver to pick up on the glittery green yarn I used.



It's still a little bit wonky but I think I'm getting better~

Oh!  Of course, I missed one step because it's still pretty early, but don't forget to fill it with lots of fun little things.  We always get a mandarin orange at the very bottom.  Does anyone else do that?  I think my mom told me once that the orange represents a gold coin or something like that.  It's become a tradition in our family in any case.

This is the first of a month full of Christmas crafting so make sure to come back each week for fun new Christmassy projects~

Please don't forget to vote for my dress in the Burdastyle Party Through the Decades Competition.

I'll be posting this project at the linky parties throughout the week so make sure to visit the linky party tab up top to check out all of the fun ideas.

By the way...did you notice that there's a new tab up top???  If you've made a scarf or something else with your spool knitter, make sure to take part in the Spool Party.  It's open throughout all of December!

Have a crafty week!