Mantel Shelf At Christmas

I love this time of year!   Although I don’t have a fireplace mantel, I do have a mantel shelf in the family room and I love to decorate it for all seasons.  Decorating it for Christmas is probably my favorite. 

The garland  I used this year was prelit.   I layered it  with pine to give it more depth and added pinecones, red balls and little red berries.          

I have collected a few of the Old World Santas and one of them has found his place again this year on the mantel shelf.

The candles are battery operated and I really like the glow it gives especially at night.    It actually flickers like a real candle.  This is my first time using them. 

A  view of the mantel shelf with the Christmas tree. 

 

I love my mantel shelf all decked out for Christmas and I hope you enjoyed seeing it. 

Blessings,

Gail

Linking this post to:  

Blue Cricket Design

Savy Southern Style

All Things Heart and Home

Sweater Christmas Ornaments

I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving.  Mine was filled with lots of loved ones and food! 

In addition to making the keepsake stockings, (you can read about them here) I also made Christmas Ornaments using one of my Mom’s sweaters. 

Each ornament has buttons  from my Mom’s sewing box.   

 

On Thanksgiving Day I gave the ornaments to  Mom’s grandchildren and the keepsake stockings to my brother and sister. From now on, my Mom will remain a part of everyone’s Christmas. 

Blessings,

Gail

Tobacco Stick Sled

The other day when I was in the attic taking down our Christmas decorations, I found a tobacco stick sled that I made a long time ago.  I decided that I would bring it down and spruce it up so that I could display it this Christmas. 

I made a lot of these sleds years ago and sold them at craft shows.  They were a big seller.   I also made chairs out of tobacco sticks and they also sold well at craft shows.    I have one chair left and my daughter-in-law has it on her porch.  I’ll have to take a picture of it. 

 

To give the sled a new look, I dried brushed it with white paint. 

Next, I added some Christmas greens, a red bow and a pair of wooden skates on the front of it. 

I think  I’m liking the new  make-over. 

For now, I have it in the entry way but who knows where it will end up. 

I almost forgot that I had that sled and I  was so excited when I discovered it.   Don’t you  just love attic treasure finds? 

Gail

I’m linking this post to:  Creation Corner, The Shabby Nest, It’s Fun to Craft, My Romantic Home, Fingerprints on the Fridge and Common Ground

Keepsake Christmas Stockings

I’ve been busy making Christmas stockings in between Christmas shopping and watching my grandsons.    The stockings are made  from sweaters and blouses that were my Mom’s. 

 

I love this stocking with the lace front.  It was made from a pale blue blouse.  I can remember my Mom wearing that blouse.  

The next two stockings were made from sweaters of hers.  On the one below, I centered  the stocking template so that the collar and zipper are part of the stocking. 

And this one, I placed the stocking template on the sweater so that the buttons were centered on the stocking. 

 

While I was making these keepsake stockings, I shed  many tears just knowing that this will be my first Christmas without either one of my parents.    I’m sure that these stockings will be a part of many Christmas’ to come within my family. 

Blessings,

Gail

Linking this post to:

Cheap Chic Home

Tin Votives Jazzed Up

Happy Monday Everybody.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.    It was a busy one for us.  We celebrated our twin grandsons’ fourth birthday this weekend.  It’s so hard to believe they are four!   

I managed to accomplish a few things this weekend one of which was jazzing up some tin votives.   I don’t know about you, but half the time I take the candle out of the tin because the tin just looks so plain and cheap looking.  I  decided I would  jazz the tin up by using some scrapbook paper so I wouldn’t have to take the tin off the candle all the time.

I measured my tin, cut the paper to  size and  hot glued it to the tin. 

Such a cheap and easy fix to a tin votive.   You could also jazz the tin up with ribbon, sequin trim and beaded braid.   I have some beautiful beaded braid that I’m going to use on others. 

I have them placed on the stair steps. 

When the candle burns out, I’ll  just replace it with another votive candle. 

 

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day.

Gail

Linking this post to:  Craft-O-Maniac, Keeping it Simple, Making the World Cuter and The Girls Creative

Christmas Mantel 2009 Party

Beth over at The Stories of A to Z is having a Christmas Mantel Linky Party.  She wants all of us to link-up our last year’s Christmas mantel. 

This is my one and only picture of my Christmas mantel from last year.  I’ve cropped it to death so that you can at least see it a little better up close. 

The garland I used was not prelit.  I strung a  strand of white lights through the garland.  I embellished  the garland with pinecones and red Christmas balls.

I love and have  collected a few of the Old World Santas through the years and  I placed one of  them on my mantel last year. 

Our grandsons’ stockings were hung with care last year in hopes that Santa would  be coming here…..and he did!

Oh am I getting excited now!  Can’t wait to  get up in the attic and bring down all my Christmas stuff.  

Gail

Chalkboard Rooster

I recently saw in one of my magazines a chalkboard rooster and fell in love with it.  I wasn’t willing to pay the price they were asking so, I decided to make my own.

I made a copy of the picture and went to Staples to enlarge it to the size I wanted.  I cut the pattern out and traced it on some pine wood that I had on hand. 

I used my skil saw to cut them out.

And somewhere along the way I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the project.  But I’ll show you what he looks like. 

I painted everything black and then used chalkboard paint on the front and back just in case I wanted to flip him around.  I wanted to give him some height so I drilled a hole in the bottom of the rooster and in the base and used a wooden dowel  rod. 

I added a pretty red bow and a sweet message for all to see. 

And for now I have him sitting in my kitchen on the countertop by the coffee pot. 

I think he turned out right cute! 

Gail

Linking this post to:  Mural Maker and  More

Final Touch to the Kitchen

The backsplash is done!

I absolutely love how it turned out.

Charlie and I are definitely DIYer’s but this project we hired out.  Our daughter-in-law’s brother and a friend of his did the tile work. 

This is what our walls looked like under the cabinets before we added the backsplash.

This is what it looks like today. 

Thanks to all who helped make my decision easier on which tile to select.  You can read about it here.  We couldn’t be happier.   

Enjoy your day.

Gail

Linking this post to:  My Romantic Home and The Shabby Nest