Christmas Decorating

It is Holiday Open House at Kimba's, BooMama is having Christmas Tour of Homes, Julia is having Hooked on Holiday Tours and our own Birmingham's Southern Hospitality Rhoda is having a Christmas Decorating Party too! Well, though I am still pulling things out of the attic and basement, just put the tree up, I still want to join the parties! (For Trash to Treasure, scroll down to the next post.)

My piano all decorated with some of my teapots and coffee pots. The ones on the left stay that way year around. From the center over has been changed. I borrowed an idea from Diane of A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words of taking a thrift store silver plate tray and displaying my bisque Nativity scene on it.

I love my pewter coffee pot lamp. I have had it for several years. The vintage brown teapot and Lenox coffeepot are gifts from IL's. The tea cup I found at Home Goods.

More pots and goodies.

This bisque Nativity Set is a gift from my late MIL.

Our tree is a hodge podge of ornaments. Homemade, gifts, souvenirs, many made with love by friends, children of friends and our precious little daughter.

My teapot fetish extends to ornaments as well. This photo is not very good as I was hand holding with no flash.

Hayward, DD's Magic Elf, is worn out. He had a busy day today. (To know more about Hayward, scroll down to see the my Trash to Treasures post.)

Hayward's bed and some other furnature is displayed under the tree for a time. He stays with us until Dec 23rd. Then he has to go back to the North Pole to help Santa.

This is my mantel decorated for the Christmas Holidays.

My SIL got me this teapot. It is a teapot for all seasons. It is also a usable teapot. And holds heat very well.

My Step MIL found this teapot in an Antique shop in New England. Heavy old stoneware. I have never used it, but I bet it makes a great pot of tea. And it looks great in my living/great room.

I made our Christmas stockings about 13 or 14 years ago. The one on the far left is mine. Every piece of fabric has some significance in it. Fabric from my after dinner rehearsal dress, fabric my late MIL brought back from IL's trip to Beging, some other fabrics in there as well. The stocking to the right is for pets or out of town guests. And this year that will be my mom! :D

DD's stocking and DH's stocking to the left.

My Christmas China displayed on the hutch in the kitchen.

We do not really do Santa (we pretend) in this house. We do have fun with it. We even have one of those silly little elves that wreaks havok and makes messes in our house this time of year. Do you realize how many people, children worship Santa as a god? I wonder how the Bishop of Myra would feel if he knew that? All he ever wanted to do was glorify God and the Lord Jesus Christ by making sure the orphans and widows had what they needed. We do have fun with it. DD knows the man we now call 'Santa' was a real person, who is in heaven now. He was one of the great Saints of God and God used him in a mighty way while he was living on earth. Somewhere in time, people lost perspective about him.

This has been fun sharing a little of my home with you! I will be posting some more in the next day or two.

Trash to Treasure Tuesday!

Welcome to Trash to Treasure Tuesday! Thank you Diane for Hosting!

Some people would take a sneaker box and throw it away.

Some people would give the sneaker box to their parrot to turn into total carnage.

Once upon a time, our grandmothers and mothers had a choice of throwing way these wooden thread spools. (See the 15 cents price on the top there! I never remember thread being 15 cents!) My grandma didn't throw hers away, and when she died, my mom kept them....

I have a nice collection of scraps .....

...and stash of fabric, left over batting from a quilt or two, felt and some lovely nordic ribbon Ed's Aunt bought in Europe many many years ago. When she died, her daughter gave me a good deal of her stash.

Using a ruler, pencil, scissors, I marked the box and began to cut. DD helped as well. Using fabric glue, we covered the bed in scrap cotton quilt batting. She helped with the head board and fabric selection.

We painted the thread spools red. They worked really well as legs for the bed. We added a few extra trims. The mattress was the only item that was sewn. Made out of an old linen curtain I have been keeping for when I need a bit of linen to make something like this. Everything else was put together with liquid stitch and elmers glue.

And a lovely Elfin bed it is! Fit for an Elfin Prince!

Hayward arrived from the North Pole late last night. He was hungry and tired. He ate his snack. Drank his apple juice. Read the note DD left for him. Wrote a note DD letting her know what he wanted for snacks tonight and left a really big mess!!!

Hayward is tired. Santa has had him working hard this year. These few days of vacation will help him out with a little rest.

But, I think Hayward is more interested in recreation!!! After a good nights sleep, he is about the house, up to mischief and hanging from the chandelier!

After a hard day of playing, he is tucked into his lovely Elfin Bed and under the Christmas Tree, ready for another night of rest... or is he????

And, with just a few things that most people would throw away like a shoe box, fabric scraps and trim, a pair of scissors and some glue, you too can make a beautiful Elfin Bed, or Barbie bed, American Doll, etc. Now it is not too sturdy, as it cannot be stepped on or treated roughly, but taken care of may last a good while and used year after year. :D

For more Trash to Treasure Posts or to participate in Trash to Treasure, go to Diane's blog A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words.

Tagged and Awards!

I am now a bathroom Beauty Snapper!!! I earned this lovely award from Shelia from Note Songs. Thank you Sheila. Scroll down a couple of posts to see my what I did to earn the award. :D

I have been Tagged by Valerie from It's a Wonderful Life. She lives in the same area that I live in. We need to meet up for coffee one day.

7 Weird facts about myself:

1. I tend to be a germafobe, but God has dealt with me about it by giving me a thumb sucker who I have to force to wash her hands and nag constantly about hygiene.
   
2. I am a counter that everything has to be symmetrical. When taking photography classes 20 years ago, I had a couple of teachers force me to quit seeing things that way. (Yep, all of my pictures were even.) But it was easy to see what they wanted me to see and I still like balance and everything to be symmetrical. Everything must flow. I teach aerobics and being a counter helps me out there. I must do as many moves on the left side as the right side. If I take a class from someone who does not teach that way it drives me nuts and I fret I will walk out of the class with a lopsided body. Though, technically, that is not the case.
   
3. I will be 50 years old next month and I teach aerobic/fitness classes. (Hey, I'm going to be there working out, may as well get paid for it!)
4. I can still do back bends.
5. I collect Teapots and Coffeepots.
6. I teach 4th grade Sunday School-edited to say, it is amazing we (dh and I) have not killed a couple of kids. LOL!!! The boys are a hand full.
   
7. I love deep rich reds. (It is easy to decorate for Christmas at my house!) Edited to say that really is not weird. What I should say is.... Since May/June of 2003, I have had major surgery every other year. Sometimes they are two years to the date. DH is already teasing me about what organ/body part will be removed this year. LOL! I say I am taking this year off. :D
   

Now I am supposed to pass along to 7 other bloggers and include their link in their name. And these are the 7 that I chose to pass the tag along to:

1. Shelia of Note Songs
2. Nikki of Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah
3. Rhoda of Southern Hospitality
   
4. Kathy of Kathy's Cottage
5. Sally of Smiling Sally
6. Wendy of Ivory Spring
7. Anya of Hills Creek Quilter
   

Thank you Shelia and Valerie!

I have some more awards to post. I will get that done in the next couple of days.

Have a blessed day everyone!
Melissa

Sunday Video

Before enjoying the music, turn off the music on my playlist in the sidebar to the right. I hope that this post does not show my age too much.

Laptop Problems

After McAfee updated the other day, Firefox 'crashed' and would not let me sign back on. So I tried IE. I would not let me sign on to the net either. :-( DH and I have both tried to figure it out. I am down stairs using DH's computer right now. (I prefer all my own settings...) I keep hearing noises upstairs. Not sure if it is big bird making them or if DD is making them. Neither one is answering me so.... I need to shut down and go upstairs and make sure my house is not torn apart.

Oh I miss using my lappy! It just goes where I go. BTW, everything else works on it. Even Outlook. Weird.

I Won!

I won again!!!

Christine from "Somewhere in Time" (Private Blog) just had a 100th post GiveAWay and she emailed me this morning that I Won!!! I don't believe it!

A couple of weeks ago, I won a Give-A-Way from Sally at Smiling Sally! She is a book reviewer and from time to time also has book Giveaways. It is a Christian Novel (I love reading these) and is a story about a reality show. I am hoping to get to read it soon. During Christmas break.

Thank you Sally! I can't wait to get started on this book.

I have several awards and a tag to post. Hopefully will get to that in the next day or so.

Have a blessed day!
Melissa

Sunday Video

To enjoy this better, turn OFF the music I have playing on my blog first. You will find my blog music on the Playlist on the sidebar to the right.



Have a blessed Sunday!
Melissa