The Stockings were hung by the chimney with tears, er care.

 PSSSST...I'm no longer blogging here!

You can now find me at

www.acottagegirl.com

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I finally got my kids' stockings done, but let me tell ya, it wasn't a fun craft AT ALL.  I about threw in the towel 6,000 times...the only thing that stayed my hand was the money I dropped in linen and ticking fabric and the time I'd already spent cutting the darn things out.  WHY, oh WHY can't I just do it the easy way like everyone else and just go to Hobby Blobby and BUY them????

So, I don't have a nice tutorial on how I made them because I did each of them differently, mostly thru trial and error and ripped seams and crooked cutting and broken needles.  It wasn't pretty.  I'll just show you the finished job, but don't look too close.  I wasn't really going for the 'homespun imperfect' look....that's just what I ended up with.

So here's my finished fireplace with the stockings finally hung. 

I used little wooden letters I found in the unfinished wood craft section at Hobby Blobby hung by jute twine to label each kiddo's stocking. Just left them as is.

 

  

 My married kids share a stocking with their honey, hense, two initials.

 

 These are the candle holders I made with odd banister posts purchased at the ReStore.

 

Here's another view of my mantle. I think I'm most happy with how this turned out.  I used greens from the pine tree out front, an old paper lantern light set from Target's garden clearance a few years ago, stars I made, ball jars and beans, left over votives from the wedding, some little ball thingys I got on clearance at Meijer and red glass ornaments from Hob Blob. The greens are so flippin' dry that if you breathe too close, it rains green needles. :)  I talk soothingly to it every single day, hoping to coax it thru the end of the season.

 

Our simple tree with meaningful ornaments, some homemade and some given thru the years.  Nothing fancy, but beautiful all the same.  It's real and smells so wonderful!

 

A view as you enter from the front hall.  Since painting, I haven't hung window treatments or anything on the walls yet, but will work on that kind of thing in January.  I also want to paint the brass on the fireplace flat black.

Who sees the duct tape?

 

I must say I'm glad to be done with seasonal crafting.  Next year I'm starting earlier.  Or maybe I'll forgo crafting and enjoy the season. Novel thought.

All that's left is baking and wrapping, thankfully two things I really enjoy....though I haven't finished shopping yet.  We usually do the bulk of our Christmas shopping the week before.  I kinda dread it each year.  I hate the cold and the crowds.  I become a humbug around all the commercialism.  I'd rather be home by the tree listening to J. Mathis and drinking hot peppermint cocoa.

I wanted to mention too, that I've been so frustrated with my camera of late.  Seems all my pictures are grainy.  I've tried all different settings....it's a Kodak digital, nothing fancy, but I've really been having a hard time getting good shots.  Hope they come thru on your screen ok.  You can always click them to enlarge, but then they look REALLY grainy.  Ah well, bigger fish to fry, as the saying goes.

 

okaybye.