As you can imagine, with the economic crisis we are all suffering through, we had a pretty simple Christmas. Our gift to ourselves was indulging in a real frasier fir Christmas tree this year. An unexpected Christmas bonus, however, allowed Mr. Sew Dear to shop around and find us a wood stove insert which we have really been wanting for our fireplace! So we surrounded ourselves in old familiar Christmas decor collected over the years ~ years when we had money and found some great, unusual things in our travels up and down the Eastern seaboard. And cherished handmade ornaments collected over the years from friends and family members, which we gleefully examine and exclaim over when placing them on the tree, Christmas music in the background adding much joy to the occasion!
The smell of a real tree is so wonderful!
I have a Christmas doll collection, from cherished friends, that I love...
...And many handcrafted items made for me over the years by my sisters ~ including these Santa dolls and tulle winged girl reindeer from my Atlanta sister, and gorgeous punch needle pieces from my Virginia sis.
I have many wreaths bedecking the outdoors and indoors ~ the birch paper covered base one I created several years ago...
A long admirer of the needle arts, I have pieces done by me from several years ago that I am very proud of. My New York sister is an expert cross stitcher, having completed a great number of pieces on linen ~ 28 count and/or 32 count, which I find just amazing. She helped and encouraged me with the 2 next pieces below, which are around 20 years old.
These other pieces I found on eBay in the last several years...
I would like to make a primitive little mouse, all dressed up, to sit next to this really cute cross stitched piece! One of these days...
The fireplace is decorated with greens, lights, red and white velvet flowers, berries, and my collection of blown glass birds. Above is a Christmas German die cut that I searched high and low for on eBay and had it framed because I had seen it in Lynnette Jensen's (Thimbleberries) Christmas book, and just had to have one!
To the left of the fireplace is where we hung the hand painted Santa this year. It's 4' tall, and we used to hang it outside. It's difficult to hang it on the vinyl siding and was getting warped, so we decided to bring Santa inside this year.
Now for the vintage stuff...
My kitchen is decorated with some old feedsacks that say "Holly Sugar" on them ~ the large one, and then some smaller ones in the old wire egg basket...
This is one of my favorite vintage pieces ~ paper mache over soup cans for a yule log!
One of my favorite eBay sellers, "izzybs" did these, but she hasn't been selling anymore for over a year. She's a wonderful primitive artist!
I have two manger sets, one more rustic with all white porcelain pieces of shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, but I do love my Jim Shore set!
We had it in a lighted curio cabinet last year, but sold it over the summer at our yard sale, so I had to improvise where to put it this year. It ended up in the sunroom on Mr. Sew Dear's drafting table, covered with brown kraft paper.
There's sooo much more that I didn't get done. Time always seems to run out on me. I am starting to understand why my Mom only wants to do the little 2' fiber optic twirling tree anymore! :) This week it will be time to pack it up in the plastic tubs and haul all those wonderful memories back up to the attic for another year.
Even though we didn't get each other any gifts this year, when Mr. Sew Dear told me I looked beautiful in the the glow of the Christmas lights, that was more than enough for me! Looking forward to better times in the New Year for all of us!
'Til next time,
Mary
