You Can Call Me Gwen

Scavenged Beauty, Take Three

 

My wonderful Beeg Seester volunteered to do some sewing for her church this Christmas season, thinking she'd be stitching up a few shepherd costumes or some such thing.

No.

They asked her to make a tree skirt for their biggest Christmas tree.

An eleven foot diameter tree skirt, to be exact, from a diamond-puckered taffeta with two bands of  velvet and a beaded trim.

She said she had to use pi when she was figuring out her patterns and fabric needs.

I said the only pi I understood was of the eating variety.

I was SEW impressed.

Making patterns, laying out all that fabric, cutting it and then getting it through the machine without creating miles of unsightly puckers?

That was an impressive feat.

Take a gander at this incredible finished product, folded in half here because...well...do you have a big enough space to open an eleven foot tree skirt?

 

 

(No. That is not my Beeg Seester.)

As I stood back in amazement and cheered her on, I was quietly lusting after the scraps that necessarily ensue when cutting straight runs of fabric into circles.

I finally just put in a bid for them.

She brought me a lovely, big pile.

I stitched some into a decoration for our front door and pulled, once again, a bunch of greens from the ice storm rescues, and some pine cones, cording and bulbs from the stores in my studio and Christmas boxes.

 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

After a lovely day full of creative pursuits, I went to bed last night with ice packs on the hurty places and distracted myself from the pain by thanking God for the treasures from the street.

And Beeg Seesters, and pinecones, and felt, and needles and thread, and hands that work, and the talents He wired into me, and friends to play with, and paint, and color, and berries, and twinkle lights, and...and...and...

Listing every little thing that I have been enjoying was a pretty wonderful way to fall asleep.

Try it tonight and let me know what you think.

Beauty from Ashes, Part Two

 

The streets here are still (sadly) lined with the debris from the ice storm of Thanksgiving weekend.

My garage still has these buckets of greens I picked from the curbs of our neighbors...

 

 

 

 

...though they are not as full as they once were.

Yesterday, I made the centerpiece for our table.

 

 

I might need some new candles.

 

 

(I certainly need to straighten the candles I do have.)

I built the box from a 1" x 4" last year, and the sweet little birds were purchased at a clearance sale some time back, but...

 

 

...the greens, berries, and pine cones are all rescued beauty.

Thank you, God. 

Beauty From Ashes

 

It's been difficult to see - lining the streets in every neighborhood of our city - the carnage from the Thanksgiving weekend ice storms.

It's painful to know my sisters lost beloved oaks and profusely-productive pecan trees and to hear of friends whose wonderful old shade trees are now only insurance liabilities with neighbors' fences crushed beneath them.

We hear talk about "nature's way of pruning", but it is often sad, sometimes dangerous, and frequently costly.

Our yard boasts no significant trees - a crepe myrtle with a few snapped limbs is all we personally suffered - and perhaps that is what leaves me in a position to see the beauty in the ashes.

I've been scavenging.

A bucket full of holly branches, quite loaded with berries, from a curbside up the street.

A big armload of magnolia limbs from a nearby neighbor's yard.

A trunkful of evergreens, with pinecones still attached, laying in the easement near the exit of our subdivision.

Limbs from a birch too big to fit in the trunk.

A branch from my sister's pecan, another from a friend's fallen Chinese pistache.

And lots of bare, straight twigs.

I am hoping to give them back to the people who suffered their loss.

Perhaps in the shape of a wreath, maybe in the form of a centerpiece, some in the form of decoration for porch or pillar.

Right now, most of the greens are in water in my garage.

 

 

 

A few sprigs made it into my Fiestaware pitcher and are sitting on the kitchen table.

 

 

I cut the limbs from my Beeg Seester's pecan and my friend's Chinese pistache into discs and have been using my woodburning tool (for the first time!) to make ornaments for their Christmas trees.

 

 

And many, many twigs are being made into new trees. 

 

Beauty from ashes.

I love a good redemption story, and I love this one most of all:

^"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."

Thank God for Christmas.

 

Hey, kids, it's time to hang the stockings!

 

Since Miss Mary Mack married Mister Mitch (how's that for alliteration?) in August, I had the pleasure of making another Christmas stocking this year.  

I let those two cute-little-honeymooners choose from a big selection of Bucilla brand stocking kits in the Merry Stockings catalog, and this is now hanging on the mantle:

 

 

After making ten of these types of stockings, I've finally developed an efficient production method, which meant this year's stocking was completed in record time.

For years, also in the name of efficiency,  I have used one of the watchmaker's cases from my  "small objects storage trays" to save all the leftover sequins from those stockings (and other projects) .

But...

For some reason, the lid on that particular case is loose-fitting, and I have had this accident...

 

 

...more times than I can count.

I'm all about efficiency; especially during the busy holiday season.

When it happened again this week, do you think I picked up this mess and immediately - and finally - put these sequins in a new case with a tighter fitting lid?

No, I certainly did not.

Because I, like the sequins above, am...

...a beautiful mess.

Hey, kids, it's time to trim the tree(s)!

 

Last week, my art mentor friend sent me a link to art project she thought was fabulous.

My hair caught fire and there is only one extinguisher for that kind of blaze.

Since I'd recently made the decision to force myself to listen to, read, or watch one hour of news each week (after a long and wonderful sabbatical from the same), I decided to try my hand at this 'make' in just the way the author recommended; sitting in front of the TV with a tray in my lap.

 

 

Step two was done after the news, because it required a trip to the garage to turn those piles of fibers into these:

 

 

Tonight, those messy little things turned into these...

 

 

...with the help of some food coloring and rubbing alcohol.

Please do yourself the favor of checking out the original, thorough and beautiful tutorial over at Just Something I Made.

Honestly, I followed her tutorial start to finish and it went exactly as she said it would.

It is just magical when you take that little bundle of fibers wrapped in wire and start spinning it with the drill!

I got excited like a little kid at Christmas.

Though you trim the trees before dying, the alcohol does relax the fibers enough that another trimming is necessary.

The little pile of trimmings was beautiful.

 

 

 

But, gosh, I wish you were here, because the most beautiful thing in my house right now is what is hitting my ears as I write this.

I am being treated to one of my favorite Christmas pleasures: Prince Charming and Miss Helping Hands are playing "Oh Holy Night" on the guitar, violin and piano.

It's making my heart swell and feel all beat-skippy.

Wish you were here.

Hey, kids, it's time to cut things!

 

Today's 'make' is brought to you by the power of full-strength coffee.

Yessir, I've been drinking full-strength coffee for several days now and going to the gym, so there's no telling when this bus will stop.

Just warning ya.

Going through my Pinterest boards when she was here the other day, Able Baker Dana pointed out yet another Christmas project I'd pinned last year.

My hair caught fire (the time was right) and we hopped up right then and started making.

 

 

Pretty soon there was a sweet little paper forest growing under the chalkboard.

 

 

But, the real reason my hair caught fire was because another special little forest had started growing on the shelf under the Mickey Mouse Christmas puzzle (which, until this month, had been waiting for a frame for two or three years).

I had finally gotten my hands on some bottle-brush trees (love them!) and added them to some little trees we'd made last year (which had never seen the light of day); I knew adding the paper trees to the growing forest would make me very happy.

 

 

Actually, I was already very happy, but the little trees do make me smile.

You can see the original source of this delightful idea, and get the original pattern and instructions (for the large tree), from the generous Katja at http://shiftctrlart.com/Blogpost/umti.

When we started our fevered cutting, I decided pretty quickly that I wanted several sizes, so I've made some of my own patterns and you can download them here.

The pattern is for letter-size paper, and you need to cut two pieces for each tree.

To assemble, just cut a slit down the center of one tree from the top half way to the bottom, cut the other tree up the center from the bottom half way to the top , and then slide them into each other; a little finessing is all you'll need to make them stand up.

A couple of suggestions:

    If you're going to make a forest or two, just print the pattern out on copy paper to use as a master and then run your letter size colored cardstock through the printer; no tracing necessary.

    If you're going to make just a few trees: first, please tell me how you exercise that kind of restraint and, second, print your pattern on cardstock and cut out the trees to use as patterns for tracing.

And remember, kids, never, ever run with scissors.

You might drop them and hurt them.

Hey, kids, it's time to make things!

 

It's December, and there is a lot of making going on around here.

The little card table that moves in and out of the sunroom by day or night is crammed with works in progress...

 

 

...and I don't even want to tell you what my studio looks like.

Of course, there are some 'makes' that I am pretty stoked about, but can't share with you because it's that secret-keeping time of year.

Today's make doesn't fall into that category, though, and you can make it yourself for peanuts.

Really.

Peanuts.

 

 

I saw the idea here via Pinterest last year, but Dana saw it on my board this year and spurred me to action.

And now all the Christmas tags are ready.

 

 

What?

I was supposed to buy the gifts, too?

 

Today

 

Today I am I thawing out some of the pesto I put up last summer...

 

 

 

...chopping fresh rosemary and cloves of garlic...

 

 

...and proofing yeast...

 

 

...to make fresh herb and garlic bread for tonight's dinner party.

I'm also crunching peppermint sticks and chocotate wafers...

 

 

...for the bottom layer of the white chocolate mousse dessert.

 

 

I've taken some time to watch old episodes of West Wing with Miss Helping Hands, and to make some more Christmas Gnomes (just because)...

 

 

...and I've put the markers on the wine glasses.

 

 

I've been snacking on these...

 

 

...in an heroic effort to stay out of this:

 

 

It smells pretty darn good in here, but it's two hours until dinner.

I'm going to take a nap.

Snow Days

 

Just a week ago...

Thanksgiving was lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twenty-five people came, ate hearty, played games, and took the annual walk-around-the-block-before-pie.

Today, that walk would be a challenge.

Today, the front yard looks like this:

 

 

And I'm wondering what walked across the neighbors roof.

 

 

Today, Miss Helping Hands is in the kitchen with her bestie, making anise-flavored sugar cookies...

 

 

...under the careful watch of the new ballerina snowflakes.

 

 

Today, I am working on the favors for our annual Christmas dinner party...

 

 

...and feeling just the tiniest bit stir crazy.

(Almost) Free Christmas Centerpiece and Ornaments

 

 

Hello, kids.

Remember those almost-free festive chair decorations I was working on Friday?

 

 

They were for the dinner party we had last night.

So....

Yesterday morning I finished making the almost-free centerpiece for the table.

It had the same elements as the chair decor: little pinecones picked up by my good friend, big pinecones picked up on a walk by moi to the local drug store, boughs lopped from the bottom of Chrismas trees and free-for-the-taking from Home Depot, and (larger) paper stars made from the pages of an old hymnal.

 

It was lovely last night, with just the candle light and the twinking lights in the centerpiece and nearby Christmas tree.

Every year I ask God for inspiration for the decorations for this little dinner party, and He always answers my prayers.

I like to use a handmade ornament, representative of each year's decor theme, as both place marker and take-home favor.

So, yesterday morning found me pulling things out of my Christmas craft box and experimenting at the kitchen counter while the white chocolate mousse was chilling in prep for whipping into dessert.

I found a bundle (just enough pieces!!) of wired greenery stems in the stash and thought I would make some little wreaths.

This is what I started with:

 

 

The iPad in the background isn't essential equipment, but it was wonderful to listen to some LifeChurch TV sermons while I worked.

I made a slew of little paper stars to start off with.

I threaded some stars onto the surgical wire (cast offs from the clinic where I work) and formed it into a wreath.

I put dots of glitter glue at each side of the stars to hold them in place...

 

 

...because I was too lazy to mess with other glues thought I would put this little wreath inside a wreath made from one of the wired greenery stems...

 

 

...and then hang a pine cone in the center and put a bow at the top.

But.

It was really too big and I didn't care for the way it looked ("...like a Cadillac emblem", according to The Prince).

Experiment #2 was more to size and taste.

I just wrapped the wired greenery around the starred wreath.

 

 

With a pine cone in the center and a little bow and name banner at the top, it made the cut for the finished ornament favor/place marker.

 

It was the last decorative detail, fallen into place just in time.

By 6:30, all the candles were lit, the twinkle lights were on, the music was playing, the fresh bread was out of the oven, the beautiful lasagna (The Prince made it this year!) was in the oven, dessert was in the refrigerator, the salad was tossed and the wine was uncorked.

The guests arrived.

We began to talk, to laugh, to pray, to eat.

We were having a wonderful time at this table.

 

 

But see that little round ornament hanging from the chandelier?

It has a story to tell.

It was made Friday during a play-time meeting of my D'Art group.

I contemplated making six of them to use as this year's favors, but decided they were too big.

So, I just hung that little ol' single bulb from the chandelier.

And, sometime between the main course and dessert, I looked up and noticed it wasn't looking too round any more.

We had used clear plastic bulbs for this ornament.

We had used real candles, with real fire burning the wicks, on this table.

And we all had a real laugh when we looked up...

 

 

...and saw what those two facts meant to one another.

You just never know where the fun will be.

But it's usually where your friends are.

 

(Almost) Free Holiday Decorations

 

I'm working on the decorations for our annual Christmas dinner party this afternoon, and thought you might like to see some of the progress.

I decided to use what I had on hand (with the addition of a couple of yards of burlap).

Did you know Home Depot will give you the boughs they trim off Christmas trees for their customers?

I think that's wonderful, and I usually pile some in the trunk when we go buy our tree.

I hauled my branches in as far as the foyer and clipped off some pieces to start making the decorations for the back of the dining chairs.

 

 

I used a small piece of floral wire to bind a couple of pieces to each other so I could get the length and the fullness I wanted.

Then I gathered up my other supplies, which include:

    - Green embroidery thread, leftover from making Goomba's Christmas stocking recently

    - The little pinecones Miss B picked up for me in Colorado (which I had painted and glittered for a wedding a few years ago)

    - Some four-inch wide 'ribbons' made from burlap which was left over after making the table runners

    - The 'strings' I pulled from said burlap runners to make the frayed edge

    - Some paper stars made from the pages of an old hymnal which a friend picked up for me at a garage sale

 

You begin to see what an economical decoration this is?

I pulled some of that burlap thread through the pinecones...

 

 

...until it came real close to the center.

 

 

I just clipped of one end of the string close to the pinecone and left the other long for attaching it to the greenery.

(On one pinecone, I left BOTH strings attached so I could use them to attach the whole thing to the chair.)

I tied the pinecones to the top of the greens,...

 

 

... strung the paper stars on the green embroidery thread,...

 

 

...and then attached them the same way.

The double-stranded pinecone gets tied on at the top...

 

 

 

...and the extra string gets wrapped around the knot of the burlap bow and voila!

 

 

The chairs are ready!

The table is not.

The food is not.

The people are not.

But, hey, I've got tomorrow.

God willing.

 

 

This busy Friday started with a short stop at Me Darlin' Mither's on my way to D'Art Group.

I had only ten or fifteen minutes with her, but it was enough time to share the latest gems I've gleaned from my job entering the names from state obituaries.

Yesterday's special was a gal whose legal name was "Twinkle Bell -----------".

Enough said.

On to D'Art Group where we painted an apple as part of a learning exercise about color value...

 

 

...and started painting the backgrounds on our canvasses for an ongoing project.

 

Mine will undergo a complete makeover later.

 

I came home for a bite of lunch before meeting up with our 'adopted' daughter, Leeeeeeeesa, to shop for silk flowers for her upcoming wedding.

She's marrying during the holiday season, so a little red and a little bright green are the order of the day.

A little practice on the boutonnieres...

 

 

...and a little bit of work on Baby Girl's Christmas stocking...

 

 

...brings me to this moment where I am filling time with this post before Little Man and his sweet momma arrive to pick up some folding chairs for his Sunday birthday party and have a little fitting of...

 

 

...Ninja masks before I actually settle on the pattern size...

 

 

...and get things all stitched up tomorrow.

After the fitting, it's off to the Plum Thicket Book Club meeting, where we'll be discussing "To Kill A Mockingbird".

That's a lot of input for one day.

Lots of pretty things, lovely people, and creative energy.

But none of it exceeded the amazing bit of God's handiwork I stopped to enjoy on my way out to the car first thing this morning.

The morning-glories climbing over our fence from the back flower bed...

 

 

...were absolutely...

 

...glorious.

Christmas is over, so I can tell you now...

 

I gave myself the best Christmas gift ever this year.

I made "Advent Calendars" (for two different people) and loaded them with little gifts.

And every day for 25 days I recieved two text messages and photos first thing in the morning from two happy people, showing me what they'd unwrapped and telling me how they felt about it.

Seriously; best gift I ever gave myself.

One of the calendars was given to my three-year-old grandshoot.

They are so easy to delight at that age; he was as thrilled with a candy cane as he was with a play helicopter.

Alas, all the photos are on my iPhone, and I have misplaced the cord which would let me upload them to this here computer.

The other recipient was my Beeg Seester.

I dropped hers off while she was out, and Bro helped me hang it on her studio wall.

 

 

I got this lovely idea from KatieBrownBlog.com. (Sorry I'm having issues with inserting links!)

I painted some of my clothespins white and covered their fronts with various red and white decorative papers, and the others I just painted with red spray paint.

I told my Seester that hers is a "pass-along"  Advent calendar, and next year she has to fill it for someone else.

As for her gifts, they were simple little things, but I did stick with a color theme she loves: turquoise and red.

That made it more challenging, but it was still a lot of fun filling it up.

I made many of the things I included.

The little felt Scotty dog, whose pattern I found on the wonderful Allsorts blog (allsorts.typepad.com). 

 

  

The hand-cut cardinal gift tags.

 

 

The stuffed bird pincushion.

  

 

The little felt stars (also from a pattern found on the lovely Allsorts blog).

 

 

The glittered ornaments made from seashells I collected while we were vacationing together in North Carolina.

 

 

The little mini-pincushion.

 

 

The pinecone elf.

 

 

The tiny notecards in coin envelopes.

 

 

The container full of paper beads in all the right colors.

  

 

The little photo holders made from spools of thread and French paper clips (complete with old school pictures of various family members).

  

 

The tiny paper birds, whose photos I forgot to take, hiding in this paper tube.

 

 

I included a few little art supplies, because Seester is making some pretty kewl collages these days.

 

 

 

  

(Oh, how I love me some Sharpies! Sharpies are our friends.)

 

 
 

 

 

 

Her first roll of Washi tape; I think she was excited.

  

 

Turquoise duct tape; I know she was excited about this!

 

 

The red binder clips, some of which I covered in fabric, were included just because we love office supplies of any kind, and if they're in our favorite colors, so much the better!







Cozy socks seemed necessary.







Fabric marking pencils and...







...tiny red embroidery scissors were included because Seester also sews beautifully.





 

So, you see, nothing too extravagant, but it sure was wonderful thing to know that my Seester started her day with a happy moment.

I'm hoping to do another one (or two) of these next year for other peeps.

And those peeps will definitely have to be of the female kind.

Who can think of 25 little, inexpensive items that would make a man happy?

Well?

Not I.