Christmas Traditions

I love looking at all the Christmas decorations that are around our town.  Some of these decorations/items have been around for as long as I can remember.  The two things that mean a lot to me from my hometown is the mini church that is now housed at the museum here in town. As a kid this was sitting outside the Otto Giese funeral home. I am not sure who but a member of the Giese family made this little church.  There was benches that you could stand on, on all sides of this so you could see inside.  I wish that the pictures would have turned out so I could share what it looked like inside.  There are pews full of people of all nationalities inside. There is a choir that comes from the back of the church up the middle aisle and sings many different Christmas carols. The inside is just beautiful.  It is a tradition to go see this church every year. When I was a kid my family would bundle up and head to town to look at all the lights and then before going home we would stop at this church and didn't matter how cold it was outside we would stand there for a long time and just gaze inside.  This happened every year growing up.  When I had children of my own we did the same thing. Then the funeral home closed and the church was removed.  I wasn't able to see it for many years but my understanding is it was being restored.  Well now I can continue this tradition and go see it during the Christmas season at the museum.  I still feel like a kid and I no longer have to stand on the benches but I do look through every single window and just smile.

The other decoration that has been around for a long long time is the huge Santa that stands on the courthouse lawn.  I think I was probably a teenager when this was put up for the first time. But it still brings smiles to my face when I see it go up.  This is something my children still love seeing and now my grandchildren and great granddaughter love seeing it. My great granddaughter Randi just beams when she sees Santa standing on the courthouse lawn as we drive downtown.  She is not keen on seeing the real Santa and won't go anywhere near him. But this Santa she loves seeing. 

My mother found this 10 1/2 ft Christmas tree at the pawn shop near our home.  It was pretty scraggly looking and only 1 set of lights worked, but my mother thought she could rescue it.  They wanted $10 for it but while talking to the sales lady and talking about how the lights didn't work, the lady offered to reduce the price to $5. My mother was happy with 10 but hey 5 works.  We got it home and my mother worked her magic.  Turns out the lights worked except for a very small area in the middle.  They just didn't have them plugged in right.  My mother fluffed this tree all up and WOW it is just beautiful and looks so grand in her living room.  She has always wanted a tall tree for the living room due to having the tall ceilings that could hold it.  The other 2 trees she puts up in the family room and back porch are 6ft trees but are just as beautiful. 

Last night I was able to get a new tote made for myself.  I can use it through January for the winter season.  I am happy with it.  I am already on the hunt for some placemats for Valentines Day, Easter, and anything else that looks cool to turn into totes. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season. And spend lots of time with family and friends.  In light of the recent tragedy in CT  take the time as often as you can to tell your family and friends how much you love them. Give lots and lots of hugs especially to your children, grandchildren and family/friends because you never know when that will be the last time you have that opportunity.  I am still in shock and just don't understand but am keeping everyone involved in my prayers. 

A little update on what this month has been like :)

Once again I have been busy. I enjoy being busy for the most part. But lately it seems I really really have been busy but am enjoying myself.  I still have a lot of projects to get done before Christmas plus still get some shopping done.   Here is more or less a picture view of what I have been up to since the last time I posted. 

The top picture is a pile of about 30+ snowflakes I have made so far to take to church to be hung from the ceiling for our Christmas party that is on Friday.  The next picture is what the snowflakes actually look like. I have posted a tutorial on how to make these very easy snowflakes.  They are made from 6 pieces of computer paper or whatever paper you desire.  They take no time at all to make but really make a nice decoration.

I made a tote like this last month for a friend a church to carry her manuals and scriptures and when my sister and my aunt saw it they each wanted one to give away as a gift.  So I made 2 more just like this over this past weekend.  They are made from 3 placemats.  2 for the tote and then one cut up for the handles and the pocket that is inside. The possibilities are endless on the different types of totes you could make.  I have a snowman one I will be making for myself tomorrow.

My oldest daughter is going to have a baby boy in a little over a month, Jan 22 is her due date.  I made her a car seat cover/blanket this evening.  These are so nice and easy to make and really protects the baby from wind, sun and even strangers from reaching in and touching.  It is lined with flannel so will give some extra warmth. 

We had a baby shower this past Saturday for my daughter and it went very well.  Spent most of the day on Friday cooking the food for the shower and then heading over to church to set the room up for the shower.  I took some pictures of the room and of course her and her ever growing baby bump :)  but my computer is having issues for some reason whenever I put my SD card in from my camera to download the pictures I took.  It won't let me download the pictures without freezing up my computer, UGH!!! will have to have that checked out. 

The Young Women I teach at church wanted to make a Scripture Advent calender for Wednesday night activity this past week.  I cut out 480 felt squares then glued them together, I sewed the 4 pieces of felt for the background and the tabs to hang the calender before hand. We only have an hour and half to get a project done so I needed to get as much done as possible for the girls to be able to go home with a finished project.  The girls that came that night had a good time putting these together. They really seemed to enjoy themselves and I think the calenders turned out great.  This coming up Wednesday night we are frosting and decorating cookies for the Christmas Party on Friday. We really have a great and beautiful bunch of Young Women at church. They are always willing to help in whatever we ask them.  I love working with these girls.

Well that is pretty much it for what I have been up to since my last post.  When I get the rest of my sewing/crafting done I will again post.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season. 

What has been keeping me busy this past month

Right after my last post, I got called to a new position at my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  I am the 2nd counselor in the Young Women Presidency. We are over the 12-18 yr old young women at church. I teach the 12-14yr olds.  This really is a very busy calling as there is an activity every Wednesday night either with all the girls or individual classes then once a month we meet with the young men and have some sort of group activity. There are a lot of church related firesides for the youth each month and also a stake activity which includes youth from the surrounding youth in my church.  As a presidency we have to oversee a lot of things and all three of us were relatively new to this calling. So we had lots to learn. On top of all this we had to plan a YW in Excellence program in a month.  A MONTH...I could not believe we had a month to plan this party/program.  I am not one to wait last minute to plan things like this, so to say I was a little freaking out was an understatement.  But it had to be done so we had to get busy as this was happening on 11-17-12.  This program is an end of the year showcase on what the YW had been doing all year. What they have accomplished in getting their Women in Excellence program.  We needed to decide on decorations, food and their is always some sort of gift that is given to the girls.  I had made a ruffled tote bag for myself to carry my YW notebook/lesson books in.  Many of the girls had commented on how they really liked my bag. So I brought up the idea to the other two in the presidency what they thought about me making bags for each girl to carry their scriptures in. Neither of these women sew so they were a little startled and thought there wasn't enough time. I assured them it wasn't a big problem. The bags themselves don't take that long to make. The biggest thing would be to figure out which material to use for each girl as I didn't want them to be the same. I made 10 bags. They are a little larger then half a placemat just as a reference.  One of the girls in our program is not girly at all. She would live in flannel shirts and jeans everyday if she could get away with it, so I knew here bag would not be ruffly so that was one down, now onto the others. Here is what I came up with.

The girls all loved them and they each knew who's bag was who's before they looked inside to find their name. We also bought them little pocket calendars to keep in bag so they could write down activities as we are told about them. This way they could see at a glance what was coming up. They loved that also.

Next on my list of things for this program was making a cake. The program theme was Color me Beautiful and we decided on doing everything in a rainbow theme.  I had seen a couple cakes on Pinterest that I thought might work.  Here is my version of the cake I made. 

It is hard to tell in this picture but there was 6 different colors. Not sure why it didn't show up that well.  The cake was 2  9x13 cakes side by side=6 cake mixes, 5 cans of frosting for between layers and a double batch of homemade cream cheese frosting for the outside. That cake was heavy to carry.  Everyone was in awe of the cake and just couldn't get over how big it was and all the colored layers.  I was asked how long it took and would I be doing it again. It took one whole day to do between baking, cooling, drying a little to frost, layering and then covering it all. Would I make it again...probably NOT.  It was fun and I am ok with how it turned out, but WOW.

My camera battery died so I didn't get pictures of all the decorations we had around but as soon as the president posts hers I will copy and add them.  Everything went off without a hitch. Everyone pitched in to help with the cleanup, Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves a lot.

On Sunday I always go over to my cousin Dale's house and we have dinner together and visit, watch a movie, chat etc.  Sometimes it's just Dale and I, sometimes it's other cousins that come over. They all know it's an open invitation and are always welcome. So we never know for sure who will be there. But it is fun getting together.  A couple weeks ago Dale and I discussed making some crafts for the holidays.  This is what we did last night from an idea I found again on Pinterest.

The top one is mine, middle is Dale's and the last one is his sister Chris's. And then all 3 together.  They are made from white knit gloves. They were so easy and we had so much fun making them.  Chris really isn't a crafter she said, but I think she did a great job.  We all laughed, giggled and just had all around fun.  Not sure what we will make next but looking forward to it.

Here is one last thing I made during this past month for the other two ladies and myself to carry our things we need for church.  I made them from 3 placemats. 2 for the bag and one cut up for the handles and a pocket inside.  I had a couple family members who have asked me to make them the owl one for gifts. So will be getting those done in next couple weeks.  I can see me making more of these from placemats for the holidays/seasons. The possibilities are endless.

I know this post is long and lots of photos but wanted to document what has been occupying most of my time this past month.  Now need to get working on the rest of my Christmas stuff.  Everyone have a wonderful holiday season.

Fall is my favorite time of the year

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I love the more comfortable weather, having a nice fire in the backyard, roasting marshmallows and just relaxing.  I also love all the fabulous colors that surround all of us in the trees.  Here in the Midwest these fabulous colors are everywhere. In the town I live in we are called the Maple City and that's because of the abundance of Maple trees that we have around here. There are not to many streets that you drive down that don't have trees lining them.  You drive under the gorgeous canopy's everywhere here.

I also love to decorate for fall.  I don't put out as much as I used to due to having my 2 1/2yr old great granddaughter living here with me. She has a tendency to TOUCH everything and thinks everything is fair game and hers.  I also am expecting a new grandson beginning of the year, so for the next couple years I will forgo decorating as much as I used to and settle for putting things up on shelves out of reach of little ones.

I took a few pictures the other day of some of the beauty around me.  I still want to take a few more but the weather hasn't been cooperating to get out and enjoy.  It is suppose to be nice and sunny beginning of next week so hopefully I will be able to get out and take more pics and enjoy the scenery.

The first picture on here is what I see while sitting in my living room out my front window.  The next one is of this round barn that is across the street from my church.  Next is one of the canopy lined streets I was driving down and the last one is of the chest my mom decorated for me for my birthday.  I hope you enjoy the little slice of fall heaven here in Northwest Indiana.

Enjoy the beauty all around you and take time to stop and look around and actually see it.

Busy Busy Busy week

This past week has been a busy one for me. I pretty much didn't do anything but make a pinata.   Last year for a church picnic I made an Ice Cream Cone pinata for the kids to break.  They all seemed to enjoy that very much and some had really never seen a pinata so they were thrilled and for the most part all the kids got to take a whack at it.  Then when all the candy fell out, well...you get the picture.

Well that pinata led to one of my friends at church asking me if I could make a pinata for their daughters birthday party the next month.  I guess when they got home from the picnic, all Paige could talk about was the pinata and how much fun it was.  The theme of her party was "Paige's Pink Purple Plane Pony's" (she was turning 4)  so we decided on me making a "P"   I decided to decorate this pinata with little pink and purple tissue paper flowers.  I think I made approximately 1000 flowers to cover this pinata.  It took about 3 days to make the flowers and then another 2 days to make the form. You have to let the layers dry in-between when using paper mache.  It took about 3 days to glue all the flowers on.  But in the end she loved it and the kids at the party thought it was pretty cool and had fun breaking it all apart. 

Now this year again I was asked to make her another pinata for her 5th birthday party. This years theme was Unicorn Rainbow.  I couldn't seem to wrap my head around how to make the horse/unicorn form as far as what to use to make it and still be able to get the paper mache on it and still have it open on the inside so that you could put the candy in it. Yeah it could have been made in pieces and then put all together but sometimes they just aren't as strong and fall apart to easy.  So since she also wanted rainbows, we ended up deciding that would be what I would make.  The size to make the pinata was up to me.  Well I never can seem to gauge size very well, it always ends up being bigger then I planned. But its all good.

I had the from all made and proceeded to add the paper mache strips and it took about 3 days total this time. It just wouldn't dry. I think the humidity had a lot to do with that. I even had a fan turned on it the whole time hoping it would help.  While waiting for this to dry, I cut out the 2in squares of tissue paper in the rainbow colors.  I made one change in the colors and that was to use pink instead of the indigo.  Now on to the decorating.  For this one I basically just twisted up each tissue paper square and dipped in glue then put it on the form in a rainbow pattern.  Well approximately 4 days and over 5000 squares later the pinata was done. A layer of batting was added to each side of the rainbow to resemble clouds which her mother wanted on the pinata.  It turned out pretty cute, but then I might be a little prejudice. :)    

Making a pinata is a lot of time, love and patience. And I have had a number of people tell me that's to much work. And yeah it is a lot of work to just be beaten and destroyed with a stick by a bunch of kids in like 5 minutes tops.  But that's what it is made for.  

I delivered the pinata last night and everyone in her family was pleased with it and really loved it.  I got a message from the father last night on picture I posted on my Facebook that said they decided to not break it and to hang it in Paige's rainbow themed bedroom.  Although it was made to be broken it sort of was a relief that all that time and work put into it would last longer and be enjoyed for awhile in her room.  I am sure she will enjoy it being in her room.

Well for the next couple days I won't be doing much as my shoulders, back, arms and hands are going to take a break.  Sitting in one position doing very repetitive movements for long periods of time (I usually worked about 5-6hrs at a stretch with a little 30 min break in-between) really takes its toll.  There were times it felt someone was sticking knives all across my back from shoulder to shoulder.  I noticed last night my left index finger felt bruised and at first couldn't figure out why then it occurred to me that was the finger I used to roll up the squares against with the stick.  I will be fine in a couple days then its on to my next project of which I have a number of things to choose from that need to get done. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

I LOVE being a Grandmother!!!

My daughter Amanda and my son in law Ed went yesterday to the OB specialist for an ultrasound. Her OB wanted her to see a high risk doctor for the first ultrasound due to her being over 35 (she is 37) and this being her first pregnancy.  The doc said everything is fine, looks fine and seeing the ultrasound pictures, I have to say my new grandson looks very handsome. Well maybe I am a little prejudiced, but that's just the way I roll  :) 




Logan Charles should make his appearance sometime late January 2012.  I am very excited and can't wait for him to get here.  I can't wait to love on him lots and lots!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day and are enjoying life. 

Never ending battle

I have decided it's a never ending battle that I have no chance of winning.  I live in a small 700sq ft house. 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bath. Which for me is just fine...But add a few more people in the mix and well it can get crowded. At the moment my granddaughter Morgyn and great granddaughter Randi live here with me.  Randi is 2 1/2 and very very active. I also have a 1 1/2yr old grandson Noah and a new grandchild on the way and due in late January. I have finally decided I am not meant to have a clean clutter free home. And you know what I am not going to stress over it. I am going to embrace it best I can.  I can at least enjoy a picked up living room after Randi goes to bed and before she gets up. Other then that as long as we can get out of the house in case of a fire or some other disaster, I am ok with that.  Oh don't get me wrong I am sure I will get upset from time to time when it gets to me, but I will calm down and life will go on.  Here is a picture I took the other day after I had spent most of the day cleaning while Randi and her mother were gone.  I enjoyed the clean living room for about an hour and then, well they got home and this is what my living room looked like after her being home about 5 min.

Well I better get going and enjoy my clean living room while I can before she gets up.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day and beautiful weekend. We are expecting some thundershowers today but cooler temps, and some cooler fall like temps over the weekend which I am going to enjoy immensely.  I am going to be involved in a church service project outside tomorrow morning so the cooler temps will be a welcome relief. Then everyone will enjoy a nice picnic at the park.  Again enjoy and don't sweat the small stuff, life is to short and you never know when things will change in an instant.