One For Me and One For You!

Well, the ornament swap is officially underway. I've received two ornaments so far that are great and I have finally finished mine (sorry for the delay). But, after reinforcing their handmade packages,
they are now packed and ready to be mailed tomorrow. Hopefully you'll get them this weekend and then I can post pictures of the finished product.

Put Up The Tree----Check!

Well, in my long list of Holiday preparations, I finally have a few accomplished! Most of my Christmas gifts are ready now and I've almost finished the ornaments for the swap. And now my tree is up! YAY!

Last night, I pulled the tree out of the storage building and attempted to put it together and set it up. One of the large bolts was missing from the tree stand so instead of standing up straight, it tipped severely to one side. In fact, it eventually ended up like this. I tried to "fix things" with tape and pieces of mat board under that leg, but finally resorted to going back outside in the cold with a flashlight to search for the missing bolt. Luckily, I found it and the tree stood up on its own.

This morning, I put up the small tree that I purchased a few years ago to hold my Swap ornaments and had fun thinking about each one as I placed them on the tree. Unfortunately, that tree is very interesting to Emmi, too, (yes she is actually trying to eat the pretty felted wreath ornament) and I've had to place a barrier of boxes around it to keep her away. Not so pretty, but maybe she'll learn to stay away. I'm going over to Monroe and Ruston for the night, so it will be interesting to see what I find in the living room when I get home tomorrow!

20 Days until . . .

Wow, this year has flown by! I can hardly believe that there are only 20 more days until Christmas. Fortunately, I have almost finished my Christmas shopping. Of course, that's about all that I have completed. I have yet to decorate the house, complete the ornaments for the family swap or finish making my Christmas cards. However, I have begun receiving ornaments from the swap.

My aunt Jerri sent this felt boot that she sewed using bits of lace and buttons. And today, I received this great little pouch from Jana,filled with a tiny Christmas journal. So cute! I've been busily working on my ornaments. For some reason, I decided to attempt yet another completely "new to me" craft. Maybe it was the Art Tour in Ruston that I recently attended, or maybe it's just the fact that I've always wanted to take watercolor lessons, but I am using that medium in my project. I just hope they don't turn into a complete mess! Without divulging any secrets, here are a few photos of the beginning stages---hope to get them in the mail Monday morning.

Ornament Swap

For the past couple of years, both Jana and I have participated in a great ornament swap hosted by Freshly Blended and Cake + Pie. We had a lot of fun and got some great things from people all over the world.

This year, we've decided to try something new--an ornament swap between family members. We decided to begin with members of the Shaffer and Houston families---my parents' family. I sent out an email to a few of them yesterday and already have received several responses. After hearing from everyone, I will divide the names into swap groups and everyone can begin crafting. Actually, even those that aren't into crafts can participate by exchanging homemade ornaments that they've purchased.

I hope that this is fun for all and that we get to know some family members that we didn't know so well before! If you are planning to participate, let me know, and we can send you a badge like the one at the right (compliments of my graphic designing daughter, Jana) to place on your own blog.

Today in the Mail . . .

"Be ready to be surprised!" ---Loesje

Yay! Today when I got home from work, I had 3 packages in the mail. Three new ornaments from the Ornament Swap arrived. Several days ago, my first ornament arrived---a really cute bird from Lise (Emmi likes this one alot, too).

This afternoon I received one from my daughter, Jana, who lives in Atlanta, GA (we agreed to send each other an ornament even though we're not on the same group list). She used her new "etching" skills to make this really cute mirrored ornament. I love the little tree she designed.


Then, I opened the envelope from Natasha in Philadelphia, PA. She used a wood burner to create the most unique little frame. The design on the front is a comfy chair with Christmas greenery and on the back she burned a garland and embellished it with pearls. The wood burning goes all the way around the edges.









And lastly was the package from Julie in the United Kingdom. She made this great pouch, and included a key chain, and a bonus ornament. How did she know that one of my favorite inspirational words is "JOY"?? And tucked into one of the pockets was a piece of Lindt chocolate inside its own miniature box. This is so much fun!!! I can't wait to see what's next!!!

Feathered Friends

“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
--Rabindranath Tagore

****Warning, Jana. I've posted photos of my ornaments. If you want to be surprised, don't read this post.****
I am the youngest of four children and the only girl. When I was a little girl, and all the boys were at school, I remember sitting out in the backyard with my mother on the wooden patio furniture that my grandfather had built for us. I don't know exactly what it was that my mother did during that time, but we sat out in the backyard on the little patio behind the shop and both of us had a notebook. She might have been writing her weekly letters to her parents, brothers and sisters, but my notebook had a list of birds that she had written for me. I would carefully make tally marks to record all the different birds that I saw each day. At certain times of the year, the Cedar Wax Wings would fill the privet tree next door and at other times there would be blue jays or mockingbirds. On rare occasions, I would see a red-headed woodpecker or perhaps a hummingbird.

As I think about it, it's no wonder that I love birds so much. My mother loved birds and both she and my dad encouraged us to explore all aspects of nature. Our family had a large, National Geographic bird identification book that my brothers and I loved to pore over. In the back of the book was a set of recordings of various bird calls. We loved the clear plastic records and played them over and over again. We learned to recognize a wide variety of birds by both their appearance and their sounds.

One of our favorite past times during the winter months was to catch birds. Don't worry---we never hurt the birds or even kept them. I think that it was either Don or David (my oldest brothers) that came up with the idea of using our old metal birdcage, but we all willingly participated. After finding a spot on the ground near the house, they propped up one corner of the cage with a stick and placed a small pile of birdseed underneath. A small rope ran from the birdcage to their bedroom window, which we'd opened just a few inches. A record player was positioned near the window, in hopes that the recorded bird calls would draw a few curious, feathered friends. We would sit by that window hour upon hour, sometimes bundled in coats when the cold air from outside seeped indoors through the window. When birds came close, we all became very quiet and almost held our breath, afraid that the slightest noise would scare the little birds away. And every once in a while, an unsuspecting sparrow would hop under the bird cage and be caught ----just long enough for us to run outside, lift the cage to free the bird and rig the whole setup again.

I still love birds---any kind really. So, this year for the Holiday Ornament Swap I decided to craft a bird. I used red wool which I felted to make a Christmas cardinal and then embroided a face. I found the "curly" hangers at Wal-Mart (a great deal---30 for $2.49) and I made the little beaded connectors. As soon as my last piece of felt is dry, I can finish up the last 3 birds and get them packaged for the mail. I've included a few photos of the project.