We all feel this is a year that we would like a reboot or rewind on. Even as careful as we tried to be at our church, Covid still got in. It is the world we now live in and we all need to make adjustments and sacrifices to not only protect ourselves but all those around us. We need to be better than careful.
As many of you who read my blog know that I have been smothered since October with crafts for Christmas and I can now say…I AM FINISHED!!! YEA! Dreams were way too big this year but it all got done and it is all up…on trees(there are 4), on walls, on shelves and yes, on my fence. Tonight I will start showing what I did as some of you have seen preliminaries. But since this is Thanksgiving week, being thankful is first and foremost.
I made a sign for my fence that is 4 feet long and about 2 feet high honoring all of you who have been so important to everyone for the last 8 months. It has 3 Christmas trees that I painted ornaments on it to represent those people and professions that have kept us going and safe. It is not a great work of art but it is a great work of heart and I sincerely thank all of you for being the willing essential workers to keep this world going during these horrific times. I sincerely hope all of you know how much you are appreciated. Enjoy my fun, feel the heart of my thanks and have a blessed Thanksgiving.
And always remember, being kind is a gift to be shared even when it may be small. No gift id kindness is ever wasted.
I am not sure if I am allowed this type of coloring for this month as I used paint instead of pens/pencils. The month of October is the month of getting crafts ready for Christmas. This year I ordered large wooded ornaments (18″ diameter) to hang on my fence outside. There are 11 of them but I thought I would post my favorites as my escapist coloring for the month. I hope you enjoy them. I really enjoyed doing them. Here is what they looked like before painting. I have posted some earlier but now that they are varnished, I thought I would show them finished. When I hang them with the garland, I will show the fence off, but its still early for that. The trees are not finished as I am making an tribute to the local police, fire and ambulance services that keep us safe. I will post those when done. I have someone making me a Merry Christmas text stencil to paint to put under them.
This one is probably my favorite because it is colored like my dogs.
Daisy Mae has a white tipped tail and nose, Mimi is solid blackI cheated a little on this one as I found a picture I liked and traced the outer edges
This next one is my other favorite as it shows the wise men heading to Bethlehem.
Holly is a symbol of Christmas representing the future for the Christ baby with the pointed leaves to represent the crown of thorns and the red berries to represent His blood.
And you got to have reindeer for Christmas and this one has a cardinal on it antlers. The cardinal is called the Christmas bird representing the beauty and warmth of the season. This year more than most, we all need to feel a little warmth and good cheer to surround us and bring us hope.
I hope you don’t mind me not fully following the Coloring Prompt rules and I look forward to getting back into coloring some soon. Thanks to Linda for setting up a prompt that allows us to having fun and sharing it with others on Escapist Coloring Club.
And remember, especially now with the chaos surrounding us all, try to always be kind. It helps us to manage this mess a little easier.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my fencing nightmare where the fence part finally got corrected from very poor installation. If interested, you can go here to read that post. I had promised in that post when I got the gate finished I would post that as well. The gate also was a nightmare that I am still working on to shave thickness off the frame as when it rains the wood swells and the gate won’t close without force. But my “gate mural” turned out okay. I am not an artist but I had fun, like I do with the adult coloring books.
The flowers, rabbits and butterflies are wood cutouts that I purchased plain and then painted. The reason for the haphazard of wood pieces for the door was to find pieces to go with what already was done to try to make it look decent. I don’t have a saw so my options were limited. The tree had wooded leaves but they were a clumsy to adhere and did not look like what I wanted so I took them off and painted on leaves. I still have 2 more flowers to paint and 3 more butterflies. At least I will have continuous flowers in my yard.
I am kind of good at out of the box thinking to pull odd things together to make a decent end project work. That is mostly what this project involved. But the purpose of the fence being able to keep the dogs off a chain and still protected was the main purpose, and that we have. So it’s all good.
I am tying in again with this month’s Escapist Coloring Club prompt as this was fun at relieving my stress of the poor construction of the fence.
And remember, even when you are faced with difficult tasks ahead, if you keep a positive attitude and smother it in kindness, good usually always rises to the top.
For some of us, getting ready to decorate for Christmas is almost as fun as the actual decorating, especially if you are into making the decorations or making gifts to give to family and friends.
Today we are in snow #4. While they have not been big snows, its still too early for my liking but we pull up out boot straps and deal with it. I only work 3 days a week now, so I was able to swap out today with tomorrow which allows for me not to have to go out in it.
If you remember I told you about the dog, the tree and the snowman ceramics I bought to paint and that they light up. The snowman turned out the cutest. They are about 7″ tall.
The biggest Christmas craft project I have ever was done back in 2000. That is when the ceramic houses that you could paint yourself first started being a hot item. My friends and I started a village at the beginning of summer and by Christmas, we both had well over 50 items each. I place it out every year and last year I added a couple of items. I have to monitor sizes as my houses/business were in the middle of the scale of houses they make today. This year I added a cathedral and an observatory along with some enhancement items like bears in a tree for the mountain cabin and the coffee stand at the tree farm. The new items were already painted so I just got to add them to the collection, but still it is fun.
The layout is broken down into 3 separate sections, one due to the size and one because of it’s theme and location.
First you have “up town” with the government buildings and the large shops. There is the City Hall, the Lawyer office/Police department, the Post Office, the Fire Station, the Bank, the Library, the Theatre and of course a church are located.
This is an alcove above the fireplace for a TV/Entertainment center
Suburbia is located on an adjacent table next to the fireplace with many favorite shops, homes and added novelties. Throughout the season, I will feature a few of these at the end of each post so you can see the details like the car at the burger stand shaped like a burger.
Homes, businesses, the mountain house, the Christmas tree farm, Railroad, Antiques, the stream with the covered bridge and the feed store.
The last section is the observatory way out in the country(the other side of the fireplace) on a mountain(a bucket on a snow covered file cabinet) by itself, however there is a hotel and a church close by. And yes, the tree for that room is reflected in the window. Not fully decorated yet though.
The fun in doing this always brings back good memories, plus that fact that one year I gave some houses away as gifts and still have lots left.
Yes it is a lot of work getting all of this out but I still enjoy it and lay it out different each year.
What are some of your favorite crafts to do at this time of year or some of your favorite decorations. I always enjoy looking at everyone’s as much as I like sharing mine, so share away and lets have fun together.
And in closing you know I always stress the value of kindness. It is a true reflection of Christ and how he wants us to try to always be kind.
I am a huge fan of Christmas decorations. Jez Braithwaite encourages us to reflect on the things we are a fan of. His challenge this week is Cacti – while I am not a huge fan of cacti I do enjoy his prompt of Fan of…
Yes, I know it is early but when you have as much to play with as I do, you have to start early so that by Thanksgiving, the switch can flip and the lights come on. This year I am switching things up a bit as the new puppy demands caution. So a plan is in place. This past weekend was shopping weekend to see if there was anything out there we just had to have…not need, we long past that mark. So in celebration of a new puppy, I found these at Michael’s that you paint the color of your dog and they light up.
I also bought a snowman and a Christmas tree
Since both dogs are black and white, not sure how the light will reflect through. I will go easy on the paint.
The village was added to as well…of course, and will be moved to the sunroom where I can spread it out more. I will also put my big 7′ formal tree there so that I can better protect it from possible mayhem. I will put my short 4.5′ tree which is always decorated in white lights and white, clear or silver ornaments in the living room on a glass top table hopefully keeping it out of harms way as well. The 7′ fun tree will go in the bedroom with the funny quirky ornaments, like S’mores, things the kids made when young and other ornaments that make me giggle.
It takes a while to get all that up so we start early. Since I made new wreaths last year, these light up ceramics may be the only things I “craft” this year. As things go up, I will post my fun and show you much there is. The sad part about it, I inherited this “bug” from my mother and my daughter inherited it from me. She lives in the basement in-law suite and has almost as much fun as I do.
Why do I love Christmas so? It is the one time of year when almost everyone seems filled with joy and hope. There seems to be more kindness and compassion floating through the air creating a magical moment of tenderness and love of mankind.
For the Love of 