Christmas-time

I don't know about you, but a part of me, after having a very wonderful Christmas is just glad it's over. I love Christmas, giving presents, decorating, lights, music, Santa and his reindeer. It is all so nice when its chilly and dark outside to have it be so festive inside. But a little part of me is looking forward to taking down all the lights and decorations, finding homes for all the new presents, packing the ornaments away carefully in their boxes, and taking down the tree. A part of me is looking forward to the New Year and a fresh start and new goals and moving forward from what has been a stressful year with lots of changes (good and bad). A part of me looks forward to spring time, and new gardens, and open windows, and warmth.

These are my very last minute finishes for Christmas ornaments.


These two are of my oldest's ornament. It is from Lizzie Kate's 6 fat men series. Of course with some color changes, and additional beading for his eyes and buttons

This was made for my sweetie. It is a Bent Creek Flair chart. I liked it because it's not Christmas-y so he can hang it somewhere year round. Again, I probably changed every single color I could. I liked the thread I used to border the cloud gave it a silver lining.
And this is my youngest's ornament. It is a San Man freebie. My youngest loves penguins,she calls them penguino's. Anyway we had a great Christmas, I hope your families did too!

John Lennon = persona non grata in my house

At our house we have been playing non-stop Christmas music since before Thanksgiving. I can't help it, it's so cheerful and there's nothing inappropriate for little ears to hear. Well little did I know that Christmas music, specifically the John Lennon "Happy Christmas/War is over" could lead to a boat load of questions. As it was playing last week I mentioned that John Lennon was killed in December the year after mommy was born. I wish I had never said anything, I didn't think they were even listening. But of course instead, this led to the question of how/why/what happened??? And now every time it plays they re-ask me the whole story and are oddly/morbidly fascinated by it. And it is really hard to delicately explain "crazed gunman" to a child. We have even had to google/wikipedia it, because when I told my 8 year old I didn't know why she told me she was sure Google would know. So now that is the one song I wish they would stop playing on the radio, not that it's not a perfectly lovely song. Also the pic of John Lennon/Yoko Ono that is featured at the top of the wikipedia page on John Lennon, you know that famous one by Annie Leibovitz, while also lovely--not so appropriate for children.

And these two angels are part of the embarrassing number of Christmas ornaments I have started and will never ever finish all of this season. I love the simplicity of the two colors. I am using a Krienik gold thread for their halos/stars/belts, and a navy blue Weeks thread for their gowns instead of the traditional black. The top one is done/framed in a cute little frame I found in a thrift store for $2. The bottom one is an almost done WIP. My goal is to someday do all of them.

I hope all of you out there are having a "Happy Christmas" season.

P.s.... its 64 degrees here in Phx today, so if you can see snow from your window i'm a little bit jealous.