The Christmas Three-Tier Tray

It all started when a little ad popped up on Facebook. You know how it does that? Ads from different stores and websites show up on your newsfeed, all with the purpose of tempting you with their wares. This particular one was from Pottery Barn and it was their three-tier tray all dolled up with Christmasy goodness. It had Santa mugs, candy canes, sprigs of greenery, and festive fabric. Simply adorable. The first thing I thought is "I have Santa mugs!". Well, two of them. One big and one tiny.

I admit that I became a bit obsessed with this three-tier tray thing. It's not much to look at on its own, especially since it's made of galvanized metal. But oh, the possibilities! Off I went in search of an affordable version of it and found it on Ebay. Easy enough to assemble, it took all of a few minutes. Then I left it in my craft room so that I could ponder how I would make my creation a thing of joy and wonder! Here's what I came up with.

First, I wrapped each tier with some mini holly strands which I already had. More things I didn't need to buy: the Santa mugs, bottle brush trees, pine cones, tiny candy canes, a Santa polar bear, tiny Santa salt and pepper shakers, and some little figures I owned since I was a child.

I bought both reindeer at Joann's. I will also use these for my winter tray.

The little ceramic basket was a thrift store find! I did purchase the Christmas fabric and berry picks and the evergreen picks.

Another purchase I made was the larger size candy canes and the all white Santa mug. It found those at a local antique store. The white mug used to be painted, but almost all of the paint is gone. I did like the look of the paint-free Santa!

The whole thing just makes me happy.

It has a place of honor on the sofa table.

So here I was thinking that I was pretty clever doing this, all with just a little idea from a Pottery Barn ad. But nooooooo! It seems that the three-tier tray is a thing. Yes, I Googled three-tier tray and so many different photos of them came up! Well, at least I can say that I didn't copy any of them. I even found out that one of my favorite Flosstubers and blogger, Priscillas2000 (that's her blog name), decorates her tray seasonally. So no particular originality for me, but I do get points for creating a cute little scenario.

I already have plans to use my three-tier tray for winter decorating to cheer up the place during those bleak winter months. But there are still several weeks to enjoy my Christmas-themed creation.

So what do you think? Can you imagine the different things you could put into the tray for different times of the year? If this is something you'd like to do, just Google "three-tier tray" and "three-tier tray decorating", and you'll not only find different sources for the tray itself, but also wonderful decorating ideas! Have fun! I hope you enjoyed this little tour!

A Very Merry Stitch Day

What's better than our monthly Stitch Day?  That would be a Christmas celebration Stitch Day!  This took place last Saturday and was no ordinary gathering.  We had decided to bring food to share, which is a departure from what we usually do.  So no little sack lunches for us!  Instead, we feasted on a ham spread appetizer, meatballs, pulled pork sliders and salad.  Peggy, our resident baker extraordinaire, provided us with a selection of delicious desserts.

Peggy also made sure that our gift table was festive.

And for when we drew numbers for our gift exchange.

Now that's pretty creative.

We each received a festive Christmas cracker and a coffee mug gift package, courtesy of Peggy.  I missed the opportunity to take a photo of all of us wearing our paper crowns.  You would have loved that!  Some boy scouts were visiting the fire station (we meet at a community room adjacent to that) and laughed at us enough.  We appreciated all of the work that Peggy put into our gathering to make it extra special!

Peggy's gifts for all of us.

Oh yes!  We also stitched.  Here is a sampling of what we were working on.

Trish's project.

My "Cardinal Winter"

Autumn leaf by Sheila.

Renee was working on a pillow.

Peggy's work of art.

Pat's Christmas tree.

We did miss two of our group members, Laurie and Thea, who could not attend, and look forward to seeing them in January!

Pat presented each of us with a lovely handmade scarf.  What a nice gift, so beautifully crafted.  And then we got creative with our scarf display for this photo.

  

So you can see what a fun and special gathering this was for the Sisters In Stitches.  I'm pretty sure that this is something we will be doing again next year! 

Other People's Creativity

All has been quiet in bloggerland for me lately.  I've been up to my usual pre-Christmas busyness and a little more disorganization than usual.  I also have not been stitching as much lately.  Oh, I've wanted to and I thought about stitching, but there always seemed to be something else more pressing that needed to be done in the past couple of weeks.  So I just wanted to get a post in before Christmas day and decided that I would showcase some creativity of others.

I've said before how much I like to get a hand-crafted gift, and I received one last week.  Sheila made this beautiful ornament for me!

It's stitched and finished so nicely, don't you think?  I'll add it to my collection of ornaments and each year will appreciate the work that I know went into it.

Many months ago I posted about a chart that I designed on PC Stitch for my friend Patty to stitch for her granddaughter.  Well, in the meantime the chart was stitched, framed and presented to the parents of this sweet little girl.  Therefore I can now post a photo of it.

Patty did a wonderful job of stitching it and her framer put it together so beautifully!  The baby's name is whited out, but you get the idea. 

One of the great things about the Christmas holidays is that our son, Matt, comes home for an extended stay.  He's been with us for a week so far, and his girlfriend, Stephanie, arrived a couple of days after he did.  Last Tuesday they cooked dinner for us, working together in the kitchen while I put my feet up and caught up on episodes of Project Runway Allstars.  (Why I didn't use this for stitching time, I don't know.)  Anyway, we were served some delicious spicy gumbo and a pear pie for dessert.  No store-bought piecrust for these two. 

Simply Delicious

 

 

 

My last photo is something I never expected to see in December.  Mark and I planted two little rosebushes last summer and one of them decided that December is a fine month to display one perfect little flower.  This just made me happy.

And with that, I'd like to wish all of my followers, fellow bloggers and all readers of my blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I plan on starting the new year with a new project that I've gotten involved in and will tell you all about it soon.  Hmmmm, it's still early.  Maybe I can get a little stitching in tonight.......

Christmas Treasures

It really looks like Christmas around here.  The house is almost decorated.  I keep finding things to put out, and I pretty much have to edit because over the years I've collect a lot of decorations.  Can't put them all up or it will look overly-festive.  Yes, there is such a thing as overly-festive.  While decorating the tree, I realized that we have quite a few ornaments that are very special to me.  Ornaments collected on various trips, ones from Christmas trees of my childhood, gifts from dear friends, very old ones (circa WW II, and two dating back to the 20's).  But the ones I love most are the handmade ones that I've collected over the years.

What an assortment!  You can see wooden ones that Mark made on the lathe, a cute snowman that Matt made in elementary school, and a funny macrame reindeer.  Then there are the clay ornaments that Matt and I made in a workshop when he was all of three years old.  When Mark and I were newlyweds, Sheila presented us with some beautiful handmade ornaments for our first Christmas tree.  Years later, she made us some pretty ornaments crafted from sand - yes, sand.  There are some little Christmas animals that I painted during my college years, along with some beaded bells and sputniks.  

These macrame snowflakes were fun to make, as was the Just Nan Santa and turkey that I stitched a few years back.

All of these wonderful treasures make the Christmas season special because they bring up so many memories.  I can't remember when the water bill is due, but I remember where I got each one of these little ornaments.  And, by the way, the tree looks so festive!  A photo of it will surely be coming up in the next couple of weeks.  So stay tuned.  Happy decorating!

All I Want For Christmas.....Stitchingwise

During this time of year, when we're all doing our best to find the perfect present for someone, Blog Hop #13 turns the tables and asks ME what I want.

The holidays are right around the corner and gift exchanges are happening everywhere you look. If an amazingly magical Stitchmas Santa were to fly overhead and bring you one stitching wish, what would it be? 

In general, I have pretty much everything I need -- good health, a home I love, a good husband, a smart and talented son, family, friends.  And I know that I'll be with family and friends during the Christmas season.  Yes, that's important to me.  But this question asks what Stitchmas Santa should bring me!  Ahhhh, that's an easy one.

As you may have seen from previous posts, I have enough stitching supplies to last a lifetime.  However there is one stitching wish that I have -- a location for our stitch group to meet.  You see, we had the ideal one which we loved, but circumstances made that one not possible anymore.  This new location has to be appropriate for the number of stitchers in our group, centrally located, inexpensive and accessible.  Stitchmas Santa, are you listening?   I do believe that he'll come through for us.  And that's it.  That's all I need.  In the meantime, the Sisters In Stitches will not give up looking for a place, and we'll gladly open our homes until we find one.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

A Little Joy

Last week I took a stitching finish from last year and turned it into a festive door hanger just in time for Christmas decorating.  The pattern is "Joy" from Little House Needleworks.  It turned out a little too big for a tree ornament so I figured that other parts of the house could use a little brightening up.

I stretched the stitched piece over foam core board, and thought about what I could use for a backing.  I liked LHN's idea of making a pillowy hanger, but wanted to do something a little different.  The pretty moss green felt that I had was regular felt -- soft and pliable -- not suitable for the backing I wanted.  So I went online and found out how to make standard felt into stiff felt.  All it took was one part white glue and one part water, mixed up and a paint brush.  I painted both sides of the felt and let it dry on freezer paper.  If you do this, you may notice that it looks really splotchy while drying, but have no fear.  Mine was very splotchy and it dried perfectly clear.  Also, you might want to turn it over a few times while it's drying.  It takes about a day for it to get good and dried out.

For the hanger, I used one of the DMC colors in the design and some silver metallic DMC and crocheted a chain.  I attached a couple of silver beads to the felt, and tied on the hanger and TA DAA!!  A sweet little door hanger.  A fun way to finish a stitching project.

Now back to my tree trimming.  And more about that coming up!

It's December?

I'm having a hard time believing that we're already into the double digits of December.  I certainly know that it's December, but how a month can fly by so quickly is beyond me.  It's probably because there is so much to do, and so much that's expected of us that we get to the end of the month and ask "What just happened there?".  So now that we're at the less-than-two-weeks until Christmas point, I intend to slow down a little.

Mark and I started this slow-down yesterday by attending the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Show.  This is a tradition we've held for about 13 years now.  Yes, it's pretty much the same show every year and no, that doesn't matter to us.  After listening to these talented musicians and singers perform their beautiful selections, there was no way we couldn't be in the Christmas spirit.

We also participated in Clark's Christmas Kids again this year.  You've seen Wal-Mart busy at the holidays, but not like this.  Clark broadcasts his show right there from the Wal-Mart, where people can come in a choose a child in the Georgia foster system to buy for.  Then it's time to take the cart and find your gifts.  But despite all of the jostling, it's a happy crowd.  I know that the purpose of this event is to benefit needy kids, but the givers get a good feeling from the experience too.

With everything going on, it's been difficult to find stitching time, or any kind of crafting time for that matter.  I've been thinking that all I want for Christmas is a day of uninterrupted stitching time.  Wouldn't that be nice?  I did frame my Peppermint Twist, which I finished stitching earlier this year.  Once again, the people at American Frame came through with exactly what I needed.  I chose a lovely green frame and red mat, which matched the stitching perfectly.  I had forgotten how much I like this piece -- so pretty and cheerful for the Christmas season.  Plus, I had the perfect wall for it, and there it will stay until the last decoration is put away. 

Tonight is our neighborhood's "Night of Lights" luminary display.  Mark has already prepared our luminaries so that they will be ready to be placed and lit at 7:00.  Sheila, Fred, Emily and Grace will be joining us for this and a pizza dinner.  And hopefully, a little walk through the neighborhood.  It's time to slow down and enjoy this beautiful Christmas season.