Christmas Comes

But Once A Year...

 I'm going to put off Mod Mix Monday till next week.

Because...Christmas comes but once a year.

And I can't do it all. I can't even do a small part of it.

I didn't post Sunday morning because I thought my internet was down.

We had a giant ice storm and yesterday afternoon I realized I had no internet.

But I still had cable...which was odd.

So I thought I'd just wait awhile and surely it would be back up.

Sunday morning I went to church services at my Mom's church.

She sings in the choir and was very very happy that I came.

After church Mom and I went out to dinner and then I went to visit my sister, 

my brother in law and all their dogs.

When I got home...I still didn't have internet.

Time to call my cable provider and ask if it was out in my area.

So I call technical support and they tell me to look at the back of my modem

"Look for a gray wire," he says.

I find the gray wire and realize it's been chewed in two!

I was like...

"is it the skinny one?"

And he said, "No", that would be your phone.

Me: "that would be why my house phone has not worked in 6 months"

Yes, I've been paying for a phone that does not work for at least 6 months...hey, maybe a year.

Not smart.

So he tells me to check the other wire or cable and it is loose on the back of my computer....

problem solved. 

So actually, my internet was never out.

Things are always going wrong with all these dogs around.

Anyway...after that....

I was just about to lose light for taking more photos of my Christmas.

Yesterday's photos were not the best because I was losing light then too...but I snapped a few to share anyway.

I'll try again tomorrow.

One of my newer putz houses. A friend gave me this one a few years ago.

Some of you noticed the new wall color in the living room.

I am totally loving it! It's just the perfect color.

Windows are still not painted and neither is the dining room.

Here is another reason why I didn't get many photos done...Franklin.

He was running loose in the room. He and Harvey are insisting upon helping me decorate.

Light quality is not great...but I snapped this good pose of him in front of Xmas pillows.

He seems thrilled with all the Christmas going on in the room.

 There's Franklin's tail as he explores.

 Another putz house...yes this one is the same as the other.

Shannon doesn't know she gave me two alike but that's ok.

They don't sit next to each other and I love them lots.

I keep thinking I'll change one of them up but I haven't done it so far.

So hopefully, I'll get more photos shot tomorrow...and I can show you the rest...

but you never know how things are going to go...do you?....

because this is how things go here.....

Got a love him anyway.

He doesn't like pooping on icy grass.

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Crafting Christmas

Plus my Christmas Mantel 2013

Yes, I've been crafting the last few days. Better late than never....I guess but 

seems never might have been fine.

But...I'd agreed to make something using a $50 gift card sent to me 

by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores as part of their

Celebrate the Season campaign.

So I HAD to get my craft on!

http://www.joann.com/celebrate-the-season/

Check out the Jo-Ann Creative Holiday Booklet here

Lots of great ideas in there!

and now here is how I made my trees

Vintage Inspired Bottle Brush Trees

First, I decided to make some vintage inspired bottle brush trees to add to my collection.

I found everything I needed to make them at Jo-Ann.

All on sale...which is a huge plus.

Supplies Needed

First, a tree from the holiday village collection.

Some small baubles and glistening snow tex to create the snow.

I also used Elmer's glue I had on hand, a little white craft paint and fine white glitter, food color or RIT dye.

oh...and hot glue and gun.

That tall green one is the tree you viewed in the package above.

Others in this photo are either made by me or vintage or new but look like vintage.

I made the far right one the other night too. 

And the pink one peeking out behind the green one with small pink ornaments. 

Far left one is a new one also.

These are so much fun to make...but messy. 

My kitchen counter looks like it will never be the same.

Oh...it's just glitter....glitter never hurt anyone...I don't think.

Although...I bet people working in a glitter factory are susceptible to glitter lung.

Here's how you make the trees.

1. First...if you want your trees a different color than the green they come... you are going to have to

bleach them. I bleached two trees...the one above is a pale blue green and the other I made

is pink.

Be sure to get the trees made of natural fibers. Many of the cheaper trees you find at Walmart and such are actually made of plastic. They won't bleach and they won't dye. You can still decorate those though and they turn out very nice...they just won't have the same vintage feel. I've decorated them before

and they turn out pretty too...you just can't change their color...so don't try.

2. Once you have your natural sisal trees...you can bleach them.

To bleach...use 50% bleach and 50% water mixed and soak your trees in the solution upside down.

It's beneficial if you can find a container that the tree can fit into upside down.

That big one was too tall and I had to scrunch it a little. It got it's shape back but it means you have to fluff it and stuff afterwards. It's just easier if you have a bigger container.

Soak the tree till it becomes the color you want. 

I went to white with mine. Which is actually a yellowish white.

It took about 30 minutes for the color to come out of my trees.

Then rinse them very well in water.

Let dry over night.

3. Now you might want to decorate them in their white state which would be very nice.

I decided to dye mine. I've read that RIT dye is the best to use for this but I didn't have any on hand and

I didn't feel like getting out in the cold to get some.

I tried a watered acrylic paint. That was a huge fail.

So I used food color. That worked just fine although I'm sure you could get much more interesting 

colors if you used RIT.

Soak the trees till they are the desired color you want.

I think I soaked mine about 15 minutes.

Rinse with cold water.

And let dry over night.

I hate crafts that you have to wait over night to complete...don't you?

I guess you could dry with a hair dryer but I had other things to do any way.

4. After they've dried thoroughly, you are ready to decorate.

I used hot glue to attach my ornaments.

Use larger ornaments on the bottom and I used beads for smaller ornaments towards the top.

Move the branches apart a little and pour in some hot glue and then shove your ornament in

with the top of it where the hanger would go hidden into the tree.

5. After all the ornaments were glued in place I heaped on Glistening Snow-Tex all over the tree with a brush

to look like the tree was freshly snowed upon.

After that dried I added more snow by painting randomly with white craft paint, then while the 

paint was wet...sprinkled on white snow glitter.

I loved the way the Snow-Tex looked on the trees but I was out after making two trees.

I made two more trees using only white craft paint and glitter.

If you like lots of glitter like I do, brush on thinned down Elmer's glue and then sprinkle with more 

snow glitter.

These babies dry pretty fast. I put them out to display when they were still tacky.

After making these...I had enough bottle brush trees to make a forest on my mantel.

Which I did but....now I need more trees for around the house.

Those are going to have to wait for another year, I'm afraid.

Snowfall Pom Pom Garland

Snowflake decals made it into this year's display. 

I found those on 70% at another craft store the other day.

That's my Christmas Mantel for 2013!

I decided to make a variation on the garland I did a couple of years ago.

I forgot to take a photo of the supplies for this craft but it's just two things.

White pom poms and fishing line. 

I got the pom poms at Jo-Ann. I already had the fishing line on hand. 

Oh...and those lights in the fireplace came from Jo-Ann too.

I don't know why I never did that before. 

Those are staying all year...or at least all winter.

How To Make the Pom Pom 

SnowFall Garland

1.  Just cut a length of fishing line...knot it at one end. 

2.  Thread your fishing line through a needle and thread a pom pom on. 

The knot will keep it from going off the end of the line.

3.  Tie another knot up the fishing line about three inches, thread another pom pom on.

4.  Just keep tying knots and threading on pom poms till you get the desired length.

5. I did them in lengths of one through six.

6.  After you've threaded the last pom pom, tie another knot about an inch from the last pom pom.

Tie several knots on top of knots so you have a bigger knot.( Like tie three)

7.  Take a very very small fine piece of wire about 3/4 of an inch long and stick through that bigger knot.

8.  Stick the wire into the snow or fabric that covers your mantel or table. 

I used my scalloped snow batting from two years ago.

I really love the way this turned out!

Maybe better than what I did the last two years!

But I swear...next year I'm going to go more simple!

and for my last craft...this one is super super easy...

Glowing Snowballs

For this craft I used styrofoam balls also from Jo-Ann.

(I'm doing something else with the ornament and felt - we'll see if I get it done before Christmas)

This craft is sooo easy and so effective.

Take the balls and punch one twinkle light from a string into the ball.

The styrofoam balls will glow!

It's hard to see this on a white tree. It's much more effective on a green tree.

But I'll try to show...

Just randomly place them around the tree. I did 24 but wish I'd bought more. 

The more the better...it looks.

I've done these all over green garland and it looks amazing.

I did it at work one year and everyone loved it.

Really adore having the inside of my fireplace all lit up without having to light all those candles.

Which I never do.

I also really love how my sconces look all decked out for the holidays this year.

They usually look so small and plain once everything else is decorated.

This year...I added a little white garland and hung big icicles.

The perfect touch.

Print and use this coupon to get some great crafting supplies at Jo-Ann.

All Christmas is on sale Big Time! 

So you'll use this for something from their regular products.

Check out Jo-Ann's Christmas Pinterest Board - "Holiday Spirit" to see what other bloggers have created inspired by

the stuff they got at Jo-Ann.

I'll be back with more of Christmas at my house on Sunday.

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Loving

Christmas Putz Houses

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Just sharing a few pretty putz houses from my Christmas Putz House Pinterest Board today.

I got all of mine out last night. I have a new church that was given me last year for Christmas.

So excited to set it up.

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I finished decorating my tree last night and almost finished the mantel.

Now I have to pull the room back together and put all those tubs away.

Yuck...I hate that part and the last two hours I was decorating I was being barked at constantly

by Harvey.

He had had enough of me being in another room.

I wasn't letting him and Franklin in because they'd get into everything.

Although they both did come in the night I took all the lights off the tree and 

put new lights on.

It was very sweet. They laid next to me on the ottoman while I cursed the tree.

They were very sympathetic to my ordeal.

Once I finally got the tree lit they jumped off the ottoman and started running all over the room.

I guess they sensed my relief that the job was done.

They also seemed pretty impressed with all the lights. They stared and stared at the tree.

So I know they were wanting in again last night but I was too busy and there was too much stuff everywhere to let them in.

This made Harvey mad! 

His barks were getting louder and louder and more insistent. 

He tried to break down the baby gate several times but I had it rigged where he couldn't.

I have to say since Harvey has lost weight...he has become much more bossy.

And he gets into things more.

I'm almost tempted to fatten him up again.

Not really...but he gets in to trouble now where he used to not because all he did was lie around.

Ok, back to Christmas....

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My dining room still has to be decorated.

I'm not very excited about it since I did not get the dining room repainted, yet.

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But oh...I am loving the color of my living room now. 

Sherwin Williams Shoji White

It looks so good with all my Christmas stuff. It looks good with everything.

You'll see.

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I went to take photos tonight and found my camera dead and I was out of batteries.

Bad Blogger... Yep, that's me.

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So tomorrow I'll take some photos.

I've just about missed all the Christmas home tour link ups.

Yet, again.

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I just can't seem to get my act together. 

I did get the garage door to close today.

I'd had to leave it open an inch the other day when it quit on me but

it still won't open.

It stops at about three inches off the ground.

So I'm afraid the outside of my house looks pretty lame.

I did put out some red lanterns I filled with white lights but 

I couldn't get all my greenery out of the garage to do the job right on the porch.

There is always next year...right? 

I did make some new vintage looking bottle brush trees the other night and 

you'll see them as part of my mantel.

Let's just pretend I have two weeks still before Christmas instead of just a few days.
There....I feel better.

Last night I was just decorating to my heart's delight and listening to my favorite Christmas music
and trying not to think about how this all should have been done two weeks ago. 

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