Holiday Greetings and Projects

Hi There!

Happy Holidays! There isn't much gardening going on here these days except for a celery plant I'm growing form the end of a grocery store bunch. (I cut about 2 inches off the bottom of the plant and put it in about an inch of water until it sends out roots and then plant it in soil)

As you can see, this one is doing pretty good. I've been clipping some of the bigger stalks on this from time to time which are still pretty small and using them in various recipes. The small, young and tender bits add more flavor than the large grocery store stalks and of course you can't beat it for freshness.

The only painting that I'm doing these days is a few more dala horse ornaments to put on our Christmas tree.

I'm afraid to get involved in a big painting or anything until all of our company has come and gone for the season.

I'm hoping that things are going well for you and that you'll keep checking the blog to see what sorts of projects are next. 

It's likely to be a long, cold winter and we'll have to try to stay busy and make the best of it both for ourselves and for those around us.

Chase those blues away and paint yourself Happy,

Julia  

Completed Football theme Dala Horse

 front

back

Combination views of new ornament

 It's kind of funny the way the pencil wraps around the horse

 Notice the way the petals follow the shape of the ears

New ornament design in progress

This ornament is for a girl that likes both art and sunflowers. Notice that I've used the shape of the ears to be the point of the flower petal and the fact that I've drawn a pencil in such a way that it will look like it's writing her name and will we attached to the end of the Y.

 Here on the back of the ornament I'll be adding the year. It amuses me the way the pencil wraps around from the front and joins the paintbrush to say "we love art" and all the sunflowers in the garden.

Solving a problem and making people happy

Here's an update on that recent upcycle/recycle idea I had for a broken Christmas garland:

After I'd gathered all the materials together based on that catalog photo it occurred to me that each of the finished ornaments would have a hole in the bottom of it.

 For some people that would have been a problem but made them perfect for a friend of mine that had been making beaded Christmas tree and angel earrings.

 It will allow her to give ornaments to everyone in the family that doesn't wear earrings.

Now they'll all have a keepsake made by their Mom, Grandma or Great Grandma and I make a bit more progress sorting things out around here and finding useful things to do with them.

Here's the beginning picture again:

I'll ask her to shoot some photos of the finished products and let you know how many ornaments she was able to make from all of this.

Packing it in

It took a total of 16 horses, each painted differently to fill this box. I'd run out of the regular size so I included 2 mini horse ornaments as well. It doesn't look like much for a years work but it's been a great adventure in design and technique that will continue to inspire other projects to come while my originals rest happily with the family, given as a wedding present and enjoyed each Christmas for generations.

I realize that people don't understand what I do or why I do it, there's never any money in it and we go without a lot but it's important to me and the few other people in my world that "get it" and that's all that really matters, isn't it?

All the pretty horses

There are still 3 yellow and one red horse left to paint in order to complete this boxed set of one dozen Christmas ornaments. It's been a long project but an interesting one.
Now that I have a dozen different designs I'll be writing up the instructions for next years calendar so that people can paint a new horse each month and make themselves a set of ornaments too.

Yellow Horse Christmas Ornament

This is the first of the yellow horse ornaments painted to be part of a boxed set I've been working on for quite a while now. So far I've done 3 different red horses for it.
Judging from the size of the box it will hold a dozen or so ornaments by the time I wrap this project up.
At the rate I'm going, Christmas may get here before they're finished. That's OK by me, I'm really attached to them and the way my designs keep evolving as I continue to try new things with them.
I'd kind of like to keep them myself but of course bills do have to be paid so I just keep working and hoping for the best.

What's in the box?

The beauty of a box this size is that I can paint a few small wooden horses to match and put them inside. I may sell it, I may keep it or I may give it away.

If I use it as a Christmas gift I may add screw eyes and ribbon to turn the carved horses into ornaments.

Anything I do is bound to make someone happy and that makes all of the time and effort worth it for me.

Thrift Store Find: Retro Tinsel Tree

 I consider it $5.00 well spent and just added a few special ornaments. The bells came from a dumpster back in the 1970's and were the first decorations my husband and I had. Isn't it amazing that they've survived this long?  Hey, come to think of it-isn't it amazing that we all have? The star is one that my Mom embroidered for us back in 1991.

The tiny metal tea cups survived a number of childhoods and were a sweet and funny gift from my brother.

It's kind of fun to sort through things this time of year and really enjoy them. Don't you think so?

Handcrafted Decorations

 This cute Christmas stocking ornament was made by my Sister Becca quite a few years ago.

I made a lot of these little clothespin ornaments with all ages in various groups over the years.

The last of the Dala horses

Progress Report

 I continue to work on those Dala horse ornaments in between other projects.

 I made this hat to use up some odd bits of yarns. I actually got about half of it done while waiting in line at one of the local food programs this morning. It made the time pass quickly and gave a few of us something to talk about besides the state of the economy or hard times. I finished a pot holder too but forgot to get a picture of that for you.

 I've actually gotten more done on these red horses but haven't shot pictures of that too.

I knit these slippers on the knitting machine tonight. My holiday gift to the family is to make sure they have something warm so I'm packing a big bag of things to take along when we get together for Thanksgiving dinner.

Still Horsing Around

I'm still working away on these ornaments and may be at it for some time, each time I think I've finished one, I think of other things to add to it.

Another Day of Dala Horse Christmas Ornaments

I realized a couple of things yesterday as I worked on these ornaments. First that I hadn't given you clear pictures after the carving and sanding so I'll start with that today. The second thing was that I'd missed a learning opportunity by just starting to paint without researching Swedish designs and finding my own way to combine them for an original twist on tradition. When these are finished they should be much better than my first attempts shown in the next few pictures.

Dala Horse Diary

 Dick got us started by cutting out the horses, next Doug and I did a bit of carving on them before they were ready to paint.

 I'm just "playing" around with them, getting ideas for designs to paint on them.

I'll keep you posted on how they turn out...

Projects for a Short Attention Span

I finished this hat but that's easy, there are only 10 or 15 rows of Double Crochet
depending on the type of yarn you're using and the size of the hook. There are a lot of patterns like this out there. (I'm not posting one because I'm not sure who wrote the one I've been using and I'd want to be sure I had permission before I did)

My brother says that watching me move between projects is like watching the ball in a pin ball machine. He's got a point there but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Work continues on the watercolors I started last week, that dot acrylic painting and the Dala Horse ornaments. The beauty of those projects is that you can walk away at any point without having a lot of clean up or things to put away.

I'm taking some time today to make some more repairs on one of the back buildings but I'm looking forward to coming in from the cold and picking up a project or too.

I'm wishing you a busy, happy and creative day too.

Scrap Happy Christmas Ornaments

Here's a fun way to use up bits of jewelry, buttons or beads. Cut a few basic holiday shapes out of felt in as many layers as it takes to make them as firm as you like and then blanket stitch the edges together. I slide ribbon in between the layers to make the hanging loop and then pin or sew all of your treasures on to them. I made these years ago and think I traced some old fashioned cookie cutters to get the shapes for them.

Heart Felt Ornaments

Everyone's a little sentimental at Christmas so I find that all of the little odds and ends a person tends to keep can shine at this time of year when you attach them to felt ornaments. You can cut holiday shapes freehand from felt or just trace a cookie cutter.
Cut 2 pieces of felt for each ornament, You'll be pinning or sewing your collection to one of them and when you've finished that you'll slip a piece of ribbon between the two layers as a hangar, tack that in place with a few stitches and then do a blanket stitch around the edges to attach both pieces and give the ornament a nice finish. For the photo ornament just fold one of your shapes in half and cut a half circle for the picture to show through (yes, you slip the photo between the layers). It's a project with endless possibilities depending on the colors or themes you want to use to display your treasures. Trace around the bottom of a glass for a ball shape to display your kids sports memorabilia...there are as many different design ideas as there are people to enjoy them.