You Can't See Me

Buddy is hiding. Can you see him? He burrows in so we won't notice him and put him outside. Spoiled dog!

Primitive Garland For The Mantle

This year I made a primitive garland to hang from the mantle. I LOVE it!

First, I had to dehydrate the oranges and apples. I cut them into slices and filled the dehydrator- for three days! One day of oranges and two days of apples. I had to do the second day of apples because my family and I kept snacking on them. They are delicious!

Once I had the apples and oranges dried, I had to drill holes in the walnuts I bought. I put them on a piece of firewood the cradle them and so I didn't put holes in my counter. The firewood worked perfectly and kept the nuts from slipping and moving all over.

Then, I just strung them on a string, alternating pieces, in about 4-foot sections. I didn't want the string to get tangled, so I kept the pieces short and then just tied all four pieces together to make one long strand.

And here's the final garland hung on the mantle. I'll be interested to see if any scent is given off when the fire is burning and the heat reaches the fruit.

This Year's Snowmen

On Black Friday all five of us went on our annual hunt for our ornaments. In case you are new here, the ornaments have to have a snowman on them in some way, shape, or form. Over the years we have accumulated so many different snowmen.

Here are this year's. First up is Mr Farmer's. Unfortunately, he decided it would be fine if his ornament was looking up the skirt of the angel topper. It has arms that are tied together so he is " hanging in there".

Next up is my ornament. It kinda goes with the primitive style I have switched over to this year.

Sissy's ornament has glasses to remind her of the fact that this year she got glasses.

The Boy's snowman has a hat. That's why he chose it.

And finally, Baby's looks like candy. It's sweet like her.

My Christmas Decorations Exploded All Over The Living Room

After decorating for Christmas this year, it looked like Christmas exploded.

I have some new things this year. This antique baby strolling sleigh is so cool! I got it at an auction. I put in a lap quilt, a snowman (of course!), a sock monkey, and my antique teddy bear. I adore the scrolling of the runners.

Also new this year, are my old ice skates and snowman figurine.

Carolers.

More antique skates and a sign I made on burlap.

I added greenery to my firewood basket.

And lights to my antique popcorn popper and lantern.

 And finally, a new birch twig wreath.

I also added some burlap pieces with writing on them to my antique sleigh bells. And also to my little sleigh. I'll show you the technique for doing this in a later post.

And just some pictures of the rest of the decorations.