The End of 2021, A Birthday and My Favorite Finish of 2021

 HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Another year is over and I just celebrated my 64th birthday.  I keep singing the Beatles song "When I'm Sixty-Four".  It was a low key celebration again this year.  I'm still not going out to eat in restaurants.  My daughter and I will pick up food occasionally and take it home to eat, but not often.  I didn't make  my annual rum cake as my birthday cake yet because I'm still eating Christmas cookies.  I'm going to make it next week.  Dear daughter did spoil me with gifts again this year.  I received a new printer, which I needed, a book on Florida history and a book on Florida museums, a book mark, a gift card to JoAnn's and a six pack of my favorite beer from the local brewery in town.   

I have a tie for my favorite finish of this year.  I'm really in love with the Christmas Tree garland I made for dear daughter.  Once the garland was put on the tree I knew all the effort was worth it.  

My second favorite finish is the Bringing Home the Christmas Tree Block pillows I made for me and dear daughter.  Every time I see my red car pillow I think of the red Ford station wagon my parents owned right before my father passed away.  It's one of those bittersweet memories.  The neighbors bought the car from Mom after Dad passed away (my mother didn't drive) and I would see it everyday parked on the street next door.  Very sad.   

  I've been playing with making some Valentine's decorations which I will share soon.  I had fun with some crocheting for those and I love the way they turned out.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

More Stars From Sticks (Sticks From The Yard)

 I gathered up enough sticks to make ten of these rustic stars.  Enough to share with dear daughter.  Five for her and five for me.  They were easy to make after cutting the sticks with my loppers (they were a little too thick to use my pruning shears on).  I cut the pieces 5 1/2 inches in length and I put the stars together with a ton of hot glue on them, then tied up the ends with jute twine from the Dollar Store.   Dear daughter shared that she likes these stars better than the ones made from coffee stirrer sticks.  

  

   Oh, and I put a Christmas tie and a tree on my little Peppermill doggie.

That's the last of the Christmas crafting 2021.  I will be making some cookie press cookies this week but I won't be blogging about those and I'm gearing up for my next birthday at the end of the month.  

The Christmas Holiday Is In Full Swing Here

   I pulled out my embroidery machine a few weeks ago and I've been doing some embroidery to make some small decorative Christmas pillows for me and dear daughter.  I had fun thinking of names of businesses that would be unique. Here are a few of the pillows I made:

     I used Christmas fabric on the wrong side to do some of the embroidery, but I have to admit some of them are hard to read.  I just couldn't bring myself to put all of this fun on plain muslin or white fabric.

     Cold never bothered my anyway

   

     Let it snow

   

    Dear Santa, I can explain

    

    Team Naughty and reverse side is Team Nice

    

    Bah Humbug Lounge (can't you just picture Scrooge at the bar knocking a few cold ones back grousing)

    

    Bassett's Gingerbread Cookie Company

    

    Festive Figgy Pudding Bakery

    

    I have a lot more of these type of pillows I want to make with more little sayings and names I made up for Christmas and Fall.  I'll be making these throughout the next year to get them done.  No rush now.  

   I made a batch of gingerbread men on Monday night.  I use the recipe from The Stay At Home Chef, link here    I like this recipe because it doesn't make a lot of cookies, just enough.  I got a total of 11 from the batch I made this year.  Last year I got 14 out of it.  It was the perfect way to start my holiday season.  

 Christmas garlands:  two wins and one loss.

   At the beginning of the year I posted about crocheting a garland for dear daughter's tree.  We finally got to install it last Saturday and it did not disappoint.  It looks awesome on her old tree, I can't wait until she gets a new bigger tree (hopefully next year) and we put that lovely garland on a new tree.  I'm sure it will shine.

    The fanfold hymnal page garland  I was trying to make from a very grainy picture snapped from a video was a complete fail.  Since I only had the picture to go by and no instructions, I could not figure out how to get the my garland to look like it did in the picture.  After two unsuccessful attempts I scraped the project.  I'm quite bummed but I can't spend time working on it, I have to move on.  

    So I had a bunch of hymnal pages leftover and I found inspiration on Pinterest to make a different kind of garland.  This time with my sewing machine.  I cut out heart shapes, layered three and sewed them together, then I sewed them to twine to hang them.  I got two of these garlands from the leftover pages.  I gave one to dear daughter.  I will be leaving this heart garland up all year.

Quick Christmas Tree Block For My Wire Frame

 I have a wire frame that I usually just keep a blue paper pieced star on.  At fall and winter holidays I just put the frame away because I don't have anything seasonal to put on the frame.  Tonight I made a quick Christmas tree block to put on the wire frame so I can continue to use the frame during the holiday.   I want to make a few different Christmas star blocks and make blocks for other holidays as well.  

Tonight I went to my fabric stash and found the background, the tree and trunk fabric and cut it to size.  The frame holds an 8" block.  The tree and trunk is raw edge applique and this  was a very quick (took me about an hour and 15 minutes to find the fabric, cut it up and sew it up) and satisfying project.

Pepper Shaker Tassel

 I saw a really cool tutorial on youtube last weekend on how to make a full tassel using fabrics and ribbons using a salt or pepper shaker as the holder.  The tutorial I saw used a festive salt shaker, like a santa or a snowman.  It has to be a salt or pepper shaker with a bottom that opens up to fill it so you can run the wire right through it.  

I found this pretty red pepper shaker at goodwill last Sunday for $1.99 and I made a tassel using some of my ribbons and strips of Christmas fabrics.  I cut the fabric (about 1" wide) and ribbons whatever length I wanted.  Since I'm hanging this from the ceiling fan I wanted a long flowing tassel.  I used floral wire to secure the tassel threading the wire from the top of the shaker to the bottom.  I put a red button where the holes are at the top to try to cover that up a little and ran the wire to the bottom to wrap it around the tassel pieces.  It was a quick, easy, and fun project.  

I really like the effect and I want to make some to keep out all year long.   I'm looking for alternate ways to make them like with little baskets or little metal buckets or small wood boxes.  Something I can hide the top of the tassel in but still thread wire through without too much trouble.  Can't use anything glass or ceramic unless it is already hollow with openings at both ends like a salt or pepper shaker.  I'm hanging mine from the ceiling light fixtures, ceiling fans or in door jambs so nosey cats can't get at them.