Stuffed Friends

When my grandchildren were small, I bought a book at JoAnn's called "Make a Monster". No sooner had the kids found the book, then they began putting post-it notes on the pages of the monsters they wanted me to make! I had never made a stuffed animal before, but the directions were pretty straightforward, and came with lots of pictures. I photocopied the patterns, making them quite a bit bigger than they were in the book. I made them with fleece, which is very forgiving if you don't get the seams just right. The eyes are glued or sewn felt or buttons, depending on my mood. and I used what fabric scraps I had that seemed to match the personality of the "monster" or the child. My granddaughter fell in love with the "bunny"...it was very loved over the years. In fact, she loved it so much that, on her 17th Christmas, she asked me to make her another one, and put the raggedy one away for safekeeping.

Over the years, I have made variations on each monster, each one passed to an adoring child/owner. I have washed , mended and re-stuffed a few. When Elly asked me to make her a new one, not wanting to leave him out, I asked her little brother (at the time he was 14) if he wanted an new monster. But he replied, "Toby would be so sad if he was replaced!"...

Like I say, they are well-loved!

Seasonal Décor

I have a confession to make...I HATE TO DUST!!! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it! But we live in the country and have a wood fire going from October to April. Needless to say, there are places in my house where you can easily write your name in the dust....right now, as I write this...So I had to come up with a way to force myself to at least dust the main living area of the house. (The back room and the office space are not so fortunate.)

Years ago, my stepdaughter introduced me to Hobby Lobby in the TriCities area (we do not yet have one in Western Montana) and I immediately saw the potential that Seasonal Decorating could have on my poor, dirty living room.

I have a big entertainment center on one wall of that room and I started with decorating that. Over the years, I have accumulated lots of lovely things that I now incorporate into decorating the entire main living space of our house, changing everything out four times in the year. This means my house gets dusted really well four times a year! Yay!

Here are photos of the four different seasonal decorations this past year. They change a bit from year to year. As you can see, my big goose is prominent during most of the year. I got him in Lodi, CA, when I lived there in the 1980's. I had to save for a long time to afford him, and I love him a lot.

Last year was the last time I put up my Christmas Village. It required my getting up and down my tall kitchen step stool at least 2 dozen times. As I near 70, I know more and more people my age that fall and break hips, arms and legs, getting up and down off of ladders. I decided it was time to pass the village on to my daughter. (The other decorations only take 6 or 7 trips up the ladder!--I KNOW!! I will have to give it all up eventually...)

Christmas Tins

One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas Season is to make fudge to give to friends and family. The tricky part is to find a nice way to present it. Fudge tends to dry out if air gets to it; plus it is sticky. Paper plates or plastic bags don't work well.

Years ago, one of Mom's friends gave her a bag of little coffee tins (apparently, she drank a lot of it!) and Mom asked me if I could recycle them for anything. They are just the size to hold about 6 ounces of fudge. This is what I came up with...

I measure the space between the top and bottom of the can and cut strips of printed Christmas paper to fit. Then, as you see in the first photo, I put double sided tape all along the edges of the paper. Starting one one side, I press the paper strip all the way around, working to keep the paper straight.

Where the seam comes together, I cut a coordinating strip of paper and tape it vertically, to hide the seam and bring it all together.

Now I have a nifty little stack of fudge containers all ready for the Holidays!