Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Santa's Still Throwing Up Christmas All Over the House

With 3 days to go, I am pretty much as ready as I'm going to get...Christmas dinner groceries yet to shop for, one last set of squares for which to make the marshmallow topping, an old family favourite recipe, Marshmallow Fantasies.  Oh.  And a queen-sized quilt to quilt.  The flimsy was finished on Saturday, the backing got assembled Sunday and Monday amid other life requirements, which, as you may recall include having Santa throw up Christmas all over my house (Dayna says she did not say "barf up") as both daughters, grandson, MacGyver and me are all here in Kingsville for Christmas for the first time (small squeal of excitement)...and so it goes, sewing and decorating slowly.

The quilt is a guild retreat mystery from 2006. Love how the blocks poke into the border, and that there are 3 layers of stars.

I pinned this to my Pinterest page for house decorating ideas probably 2 years ago.  I decided to try to recreate it.  I'm pretty pleased with the result!  Dollar Store fake twigs (which, by the way, I discovered on my walk with Rocco the other day, are exactly what Burning Bushes look like right now!), Dollar Store craft paint, wine bottles (the most enjoyable part of the process, ha) and some gold ribbon.
From left to right: first coat of paint to cover, the second sponge-blobbed on (technical term right), still wet, the third end dried product.

I made my own stencils, just printed out a J and a Y from an Old English-style font, and cut it out with an Exacto-knife.  For the snowflake, I made a beautiful one out of paper and then realized I needed it in stencil form, like the reverse image.....nvm I know what I mean!  So using a pencil, I drew the outline of a simple snowflake very lightly, and then, holding my breath, trying to be steady, I went over it with red paint and a very fine paintbrush.

Front foyer at night. Dayna gave us some of her decorations she didn't use this year.  The vast majority of my stuff is in Florida.
I bought a red towel at the Dollar Store, $1 as opposed to $3 or more for a fancy Christmas one, and used a leftover strip from Brady's stocking to decorate the towel.  I had the red tea towel with an appliqué project in mind...didn't happen yet, so I used up more of the leftover strips from his stocking and the cushion cover I made and decorated the tea towel.
Did a decorative stitch and other top-stitching in Sulky metallic on the towel.  Red Isacord on the tea towel, which hasn't been washed yet, as you can see.
The weather is not cooperating, as anyone who lives in the northern US and Canada knows.  El Niño is to blame, and I am totally okay with that!  Outside of one day where this happened:
On the Greenway in Kingsville, Dec. 19.  The "snow shower" lasted half a day with the temperature hovering around freezing.
One week earlier, we had a high of 16C/61F!!  And this happened:
December 12, dogs and MacGyver catching some rays--I even had an Osteospermum blooming still at that point in the pot you see by the patio door
Yesterday it was 10C/50F again and tomorrow we are supposed to go to 14C/58F!  Crazy.  Love it.

I won't be posting again until, well, not sure exactly when.  On Christmas Day evening, we are FaceTiming with Brianne and Brady, and that is when we are going to tell Brady that he is coming here for 8 days!!!!  This is the conversation I'm imagining:

Me:  Oh Brady, I so wish you could come to Nana and Grandpa's house for Christmas...We miss you so much.
Brady:  Yeah, me too, Nana. I wish I could dive through my iPad and land in your house. (he will probably mime diving through his iPad, as he has done in the past on more than one occasion)
Me:  Wouldn't it be cool if you could hop on a plane tomorrow morning and fly here?
Brady:  Uh huh...I would like that very much.
Me: Well, Nana and Grandpa have done that!  You and your mummy are going to get on a plane at the airport tomorrow morning and fly here!!  For 8 whole days!!
Brady:  HUH?!!  Really??
Me:  Surprise!
Then we all will be laughing and cheering and jumping around...well not MacGyver, man of restrained emotions...but Dayna and her boyfriend will be here when we FaceTime and Brianne and MacGyver and I have been DYING with excitement to tell Brady for a couple of months now, almost spilling the beans on several occasions...it's going to be an awesome Christmas!



I've been meaning to get a photo of this little sticker in the yoga studio bathroom, but I don't usually have my phone on me.  I did the other day.  It is very appropriate at this busy, busy, often-stressful season:
Merry Christmas everyone, and remember to be kind to yourself as well. :-)

13 comments:

  1. I love Rocco's little sweatshirt! What does it say? (And of course great hat MacGyver) The decorations look great! It's those sweet little touches that will truly make your house look like it threw up Christmas. That still makes me laugh. I wish our house looked that way, but I was too afraid the new kitten would get into all the Christmas thow up :P Seriously, adding the left over scraps to those towels...GREAT IDEA! I need to remember that next year for gifts. And I'm super excited for your Christmas surprise. I can only imagine the look of pure excitement on both your and Brady's face when you give him the good news. The magic of Christmas. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas! I look forward to hearing about it.

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  2. Love your imagined Face Time scene with Brady! That's just wonderful that you will all be together for Christmas Sandra! Wahoooo! Wishing you the most beautiful of Christmases!

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  3. Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful time with your family. xx

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  4. Merry Christmas! I can imagine the look on Brady's face when he realizes that he is actually going to be enjoying Christmas at your place.

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  5. I love the wine bottle and towel ideas. So simple, but yet so striking. I'm loving no snow. I wish you a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the time with your family.

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  6. Merry Christmas!! I love your towels and wine bottles. Maybe I'll do that next year. I'm TOTALLY okay with the warm weather. Happy New Year, too!

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  7. You are amazing! I thought I accomplished a lot in the last month. I can tell you're very excited and I'm so happy for you guys to all be together! I hear we might have 69 degrees on Christmas day! BBQ time!

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  8. Your house looks lovely - have a very merry Christmas!!!

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  9. Merry Christmas my friend, I know you will have a great time with your family there! The house looks all ready for them. I saw those wine bottles on pintrest too, love them! Which reminds me I was going to do something in a snowman, better put that on the list for today too!! We don't have snow here either-strange year but I can live with it!!

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  10. Remember my idea you thought was good? Put the tickets in Brady's stocking? :D

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  11. Merry Christmas to you. Have a great time with your family. Looking forward to meeting you again in blogland in the new year.

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  12. Your house looks beautiful. And it sounds like your surprise was a HUGE success. Hope you are enjoying your family time.

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  13. Hasn't the weather been so weird, even here in the uk? It has been so warm here, yet storms horrendous enough to have names. Frank is the current one, just on his way out. I love your idea of trimming cheaper towels. Must remember that for next year. And being non american, I have to ask? What do you do with marshmallows? Or to be more precise where do mallows fit in with the Christmas dinner? We have chocolate covered mallows with a cup of tea, but I don't think that's what you mean. And, finally, so glad Brady and his mum came to join you for Christmas.

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