Spending some holiday time with my sweet family but I’ll be back in this space in a couple of days.
Stay warm and close to those you love and I’ll see you very soon.
Lovely Button Tree
I love Christmas trees and I love ribbon and I love buttons–so what better way to spend the afternoon than to make a sweet little button tree. It was terrifically quick and easy and…well, beautiful, if I do say so myself.
I’ve been saving the cardboard cone from my cotton yarn but a styrofoam cone would work great too. I put a couple of lines of glue stick up the sides…
and wound green yarn up the whole length of the cone. Now it looks like a tree and it won’t matter so much if there are spaces between some of the buttons here and there.
Now the scary part. You know that glue guns and I are mortal enemies, so it was a huge stretch to even consider doing this project. But I’ve been saving green and gold buttons for centuries–just for this project, so the flame thrower glue gun from Hades was just not going to stop me. Burn me, yes. Stop me, no. 😕
It worked best for me to put the glue on the yarn and stick the buttons on. If I had tried to put the glue on the buttons instead…well, I saw the emergency room in my immediate future with that technique. This way worked better. Word of caution though–be very careful when pushing the buttons on that have those little holes. The evil hot glue will come right out those holes and try to kill you. I know this so beware.
I tried doing rows at first then I just went for a more random look…
and it worked fine. Isn’t this the cutest little button tree you’ve ever seen?
Even better topped off with a elegant gold bow.
Now I want to see what I can do with pink buttons…heh, heh, heh.
I’m off to wrap the rest of the pretty little presents. Oh, do have a wonderful Christmas Eve my friends.
Merry, merry Christmas!
Christmasy Things To Love~
right this minute…
~The hand made ornaments that remind me that we are loved every time I see them.
~The adorable Reindeer cupcakes that Dane and Kortney made for us–scrumptious!
~The fancy-schmancy ribbon that I forgot I bought last year that’s gonna class-up my Christmas wrapping this year.
~Ok, maybe not so Christmasy–but Beany is always something to love…for me. Maybe I should have put a bow on his head or some curly ribbon between his toes so he’d be a true Christmas kitty.
~The way the tree lights give any room a magical glow that you can see clear down the hall. :}
~The small box with all the sparkly Christmas tags…that nobody knows about…except…me. Heh, heh.
~My wooly sheep flock just waiting for their ears and tails…although they do look pretty darn cute without them.
~A baby boy and a jolly Santa regarding each other…
~and the big sister who hid under the table the whole time.
~Finding joy in every detail of this happy holiday season–the lights, the tinsel, the ceramic Santa and the tiny pine manger—and taking a moment to let all that Christmas loveliness seep into my soul.
Oh, Christmas…oh, Martha…
The Tree Finally
I’ve been terribly spoiled when it comes to putting up a Christmas tree…fake one, that is. For many years, when my kids were old enough to know what they were doing, the tradition was that I would go out shopping with my sister the day after Thanksgiving, and the big kids would put up the tree and decorate it. Pretty cool thing to come home to instant Christmas decorations after a long day in the shopping frenzy.
Then, as they got older still, Jillian bought her own pre-lit tree that she would set up and all I had to do was hang the ornaments.
Spoiled indeed.
But now, after a million years, and two lovely weddings, I find myself in the basement with the old tree–that I haven’t put up by myself in 20 years. Luckily, Lyndi was there to remind me that the branches are all different sizes and some are colored coded on the end to make it– ahem– easier.
Some, however have the color coding chipped off so we had to wing it with those ones. I spread out the branches and worked my way up the row. It was all coming back to me, but looking much scarier than I’d remembered from years past.
By the fifth row it was kind of ugly and poky like a bunch of big, green tumble weeds…but it didn’t stop me from forging ahead…
clear to the last piece…the top!
Now, that’s not so bad–right? Then, I got really brave and cut the light cord off the angel–because her little twinkle lights haven’t worked in years anyway–and perched her up on top.
Next, I tucked two strings of lights in the branches, and to be honest, by that time I needed a rest. Odd, odd thing, to go from all the kids putting up the tree to me doing it all by myself. Luckily, Miss Chompy came by to help me with the ornaments–or I might have been content to leave it with just the lights.
Because they’re the best part anyway.
Thirteen Days Left
Perhaps you’ve noticed that my attendance here has been rather…how should we say…spotty in the last week or so. Lemme splain. You see, making things for Christmas is a huge deal in my book and for various sundry reasons, I got a dreadfully late start this year.
I’ll try to do better at showing you all the projects as they are happening–I promise. But for now, all I can say is…
so much to do…
so little time.
Stay tuned.