23 More Days...

Until Christmas!  

Are you counting?  I am!

I'm having so much fun decorating, planning a little tea for my quilting and hooking friends and just enjoying the season.  I have a few new Christmas decorating photos to show you and some with changes that I've made to what I had already done.

So come on along!

Here are some close up photos of some of our ornaments.  The punched tin star tree topper I won at the Shaker Woods Festival in Columbiana, Ohio several years ago.  

Most of the ornaments are hand crafted and were either purchased or gifted to me when I was travel teaching.

Pictured below is one of the new seasonal arrangements that I made yesterday from fresh greenery that was found on our property and in the woods beyond the cleared land.  This one is in a salt glazed crock and is sitting on the sideboard in our kitchen.

The Santas that you see on the ledge of the pine step back cupboard I made several years ago from vintage glass Coke bottles.  I designed, sculpted and hand painted each one and they are all unique, depicting different themes.

They are Mr. Painted Quilt's favorites.

The second fresh greenery arrangement is in a basket that now rests on a chair in the main floor bathroom.  Both arrangements are made from cedar, fir and fresh holly. 

Here it is again but from a different angle.

Now you guys don't miss a trick, do ya!

After my last post several of you asked about my vintage poinsettia quilt that I wrote about here.  Well it is now on our bed, just in time for the Holiday Season.

It's been folded up in my quilt cupboard since last Christmas.  On the next sunny day I'll hang it out on the clothesline and the fold marks will disappear.  

A few more Christmas memories can be found on the side table in our bedroom.  I designed and painted the Santa back in 1993.  Yikes!  Where has the time gone?

The little gathering on our stove top now sports a few different things including a reproduction vintage fly screen which I found in a local shop just last week.

And while all this was happening, I made an apple pie and a roast is simmering away in the slow cooker for tonight's dinner.  

Frankie and Ollie were chilling yesterday morning just prior to his visit to the doggie day spa.

And here's a much cleaner and spiffier Ollie this morning.  Boy did he need it!  

And last but not least, a little reminder that this Friday, December7th, is the First Friday of the month of December and I have a special design that I created just for you all to make and enjoy.  I think that this one might be my most favorite First Friday Freebie to date.  

Can you tell that I'm excited?

Just About Done!

My Christmas decorating for this year is almost done!  

Because this is the first time that we're decorating for Christmas in this house, it has taken longer than I thought it would.  Next year will be a piece of cake now that I know that each of our treasures has it's own special place.  I still have a little tweaking to do in the pantry, our bedroom and my studio which shouldn't take too long leaving just the outside to do but that will be easy.

So if you'd like to go for a little tour, just follow me!

First is the mud room as you enter our home through the back door.  That is a live holly bush which will be transplanted into the garden in the Spring.

From there we enter into the kitchen area.  This is a little vignette I created on the top of our stove.  Everything is sitting on a dough board which makes it easy to remove when I have to cook.

This little grouping is on top of an antique dough box which sits in front of the window overlooking the front yard.  The candle on top of Santa's head is a battery operated one that is set to come on daily at 4 p.m. and then shuts itself off automatically four hours later.  It looks so real!

From the kitchen, we step into the sitting or family room.

This next photo is also in the sitting room directly opposite the above photo.

Just off the sitting room is the dining room.  The picture is a little dark but can you see the feather tree sitting in a trencher filled with "never melting snowballs" and rusty bells?

This photo is of the dining room as well but taken from the other side of the room.  The green vase in the background on the right contains fresh holly and fir boughs pruned from shrubs and trees on our property.

The downstairs bathroom at night with just the mini lights illuminating the room.

I'm really pleased with the way the living room came together.  We tried the tree in a couple of places and this is what we finally settled on.

Panning over to the left of the tree is the hunt table which overlooks the front of the house.

This next photo was taken from just inside the entrance to the living room looking towards the opposite end of the room.  

Can you see my Wish quilt hanging on the wall on the right side?  It's perfect there and I love it!

Follow me upstairs now.  There's some Christmas stuff happening up there too!

First, the upstairs bathroom.

And from the doorway.

Next is the guest bedroom or what I refer to as "Emily's room".

Did you notice the Comfort & Joy quilt on the bed?  You didn't?  Then let me show you a few more pictures.

Ollie and Frankie were a big help but they preferred chilling in front of the fire.

Poor Ollie.  He was just plum tuckered out from all the work.  I wonder if he is having visions of sugar plums dancing in his head...or a French poodle perhaps?

Bonjour, ma cherie.  Ooh la la!

I hope you enjoyed visiting our home.  

Remember, the kettle is always hot and if you'd like to come and stitch for a while, do stop by.

Christmas Decorating - Phase 1

We moved to the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia in December of 2010, just two weeks before Christmas.  It goes without saying that our Christmas that year was a very sparse one.  We unpacked only the bare necessities, knowing that we would be knee deep into renovations as soon as we could line up some contractors.

Last year it was difficult to get into the Christmas spirit because it was just a couple of weeks after the holidays that I began my cancer treatments.  And of course Frankie was still a very inquisitive and neurotic kitten at the time who had a hard time accepting new and different things into HIS environment.

Well, this year, I'm pumped and soooooo ready to decorate.  It's been three long years since I've unpacked all my treasures.  Before moving, I purged and considerably downsized my Christmas stash and kept only my most very favorite things.

So yesterday morning, Mr. Painted Quilt brought in the first three bins marked "Xmas" from our workshop outbuilding.  

Ollie was there to supervise.

I wonder if there are any toys in there...or food maybe?

It felt like Christmas morning.  Each item brought back memories of friends, family and places that I/we have visited in our travels and at times, I became very sentimental.

I decided to tackle downstairs first and started with the dining room...

And then moved on to the bathroom.

Next up was the sitting room...

And then the living room where I still have a lot more to do, including the tree.

And lastly, the kitchen...our favorite place to hang out.

The cooking corner with freshly baked banana bread cooling on the stovetop...

And the cozy stove to keep us warm and toasty.

Are we done yet?  All that work made me hungry!

Phase 1 is done but there's still lots more to do.  Today I'm hoping to haul out the tree and boxes of ornies that are stored under the dormers...and I haven't even started upstairs!

Fresh pine boughs and holly from the woods at the back of our house will be cut and added to the mix.   

My goal is to be finished by Wednesday or by the end of the week at the latest.  

Stay tuned for Phase 2!

*Note to Janet*

You came up as a "no-reply" blogger so I was unable to contact you directly to answer your question about the thread that I used to complete the stitching on my Wish quilt.  I used DMC #115 which is a variegated red and it's one of my favorites.