Christmas Day

Christmas day brought turkey, stuffing and those oh so good mashed potatoes.   My son Doug and his fiancé Elke arrived from Germany on Christmas Eve.   Luggage was lost, but the Christmas spirit was not.  Lufthansa delivered the lost luggage to our house 6PM Christmas day!  They tried really hard to get it here, and we live a good hour 1/2 from the airport! 

 

The Christmas table was set by Doug and Elke.  The table cloth is a gift made by my friend Barbara, who blanket stitched trees, reindeer and Santa's around the border!   And, next to the adult table, was a special table for our grandkids…

That’s sparkling cider (not champagne) served in those Target polka dot glasses!  And do you recognize that little Target tree? 

And after dinner, we opened presents.  Elke tried on the robe we got her, and Chelsea tried on her new sweater.  Hummm, wonder who likes their present the best?

Hope your Christmas was wonderful!  Now it’s time to get organized.  I’ll be back with some tips to help just in case you’re in the organizing mood too! 

Hugs,

Anne

Oh Christmas Tree

I’ve always had a live tree.  It’s only in the past several years that we’ve gone to an artificial tree.  It’s against all my principles, but it’s necessary.  It’s an artificial tree, or no tree, it’s that simple.  The month gets shorter every year, and there’s never time now to get “Christmas” pulled together.  So I fill my tree with so many ornaments  you can hardly see the branches. Ahhh, but I miss the smell of pine! 

My tree is a happy one this year.  Must be because of these little red heads…

This little angel is perched in the branches, watching over the tree.  She’s new and she’s from Nordstrom! 

 

And the Allie dogs love their place among the ornaments…a pink Allie

… a gray “French General” Allie 

 

And isn’t that Henrietta Whiskers in my tree?  Can you see her?  She’s a little shy. 

 

 

My little feather tree sits in our family room and holds my childhood ornaments every year. 

 

And my sweet snow angel sits near a  container of ornaments.

 

And every year my special collection of teddy bears adorn the dining room.

 

One of these days I’m going to have a tree filled with bunnies.  Seems the right thing to do.  Of course I’ll have to get a live tree to celebrate!

Hugs,

 

Anne

Moving onto Christmas

While you were out shopping, going to holiday parties, or sewing those last minute gifts, I was surrounded by computers.    Bunny Hill became “networked” over the weekend and it wasn’t fun.  A love/hate relationship for sure!  I got a little sidetracked from decorating, so back to Christmas…

Remember the picture of the snowmen in front of the vintage dough bowl?

Here’s a peek inside the bowl! 

It’s filled with silver and pink Christmas balls with a few pinecone balls for texture. 

Filled is actually an understatement. 

The bowl is a large size and it took about 8 boxes of  ornaments to fill it. 

Using the containers you already have is a quick way to decorate for Christmas.  Fill those wood bowls, glass jars and baskets with anything Christmas! 

  

Pink is a basic for my decorating, but then I mix in a lot of brown, red, white and silver.

Look around your house.  Do you have containers waiting to be filled?  Put a little Christmas in them!

Hugs,

Anne

Glitter Me Pink

I had such good intentions.  I purchased special German glass glitter, made a Bitty Lamb from French General linen, and set about to make a pink glittered lamb.

I think I’m better at appliqué.   Here’s how she’s supposed to look, powder puff white, sweet and innocent…

Here she is in linen.  Still pretty cute and certainly innocent. There’s the bag of glass glitter…

Now add the glue.  Glue + glitter = mess.  Bad, bad stuff!  Glue is sticking to my fingers, the lamb is sticking to my fingers and the glitter sticks to any darn thing it wants to.

Had I thought this out I might have done something with those buttons before I started with the darn glitter. 

Not my best work.  I’m in awe of those of you who can make glittered treasures.   For my little ornament,  here’s the story I’ll tell:  She’s a very old lamb, belonged to my grandmother (I know, those awful buttons), and over the years she’s lost a bit of glitter.  She’s worn, but still has a special place on our tree every year.  We’ll never give her up. 

   

More decorations to come… 

 

Hugs,

Anne

Christmas Decorating

The weekend went by too quickly.  Holiday weekends seem to do that!  I spent part of the weekend decorating for Christmas.  I’m not sure why this process takes so long, but it does.  All over my neighborhood people were busy decorating.   Thousands of lights went up on houses, and front yards were filled with snowmen and other delights. The neighborhood took on a new look! Isn’t it amazing what we do for Christmas?

I try every year to change things around a bit and not duplicate the previous year.   Do you put everything in the same place each year, or do you change things around?  Do you have a decorating plan?  Tell me your secrets!

Last year, Brigette gave me this wonderful pink sign for Christmas. 

This year it became the focus of my dining room hutch.  These pink lambs are feeling right at home!

And speaking of pink, the snowmen that you saw in an earlier post, are at home on my dining room table, in front of a bowl full of pink…

…you’ll have to wait to see inside the bowl.  Too much of a pink fix for one post.  I’ll show you more later!

 

Happy Monday everyone! 

Hugs,

Anne

Craft Iron

Good news!  While I was at market I spoke to the people at Cl0ver asking why they discontinued their craft iron.  I love my Clover craft iron and the thought of going without isn’t appealing. 

Apparently some of the irons are making a buzzing sound.  They didn’t say what the buzzing sound means.  I guess the moral of the story is don’t ever trust an iron that buzzes!  My iron seems to be fine, but I’ll be extra careful not to leave it on all day. 

The good news is that Clover is replacing the iron  with a new model that should be available by next market!  They promise the same type of iron with that wonderful pointed tip.  New and improved, coming in about 6 months.   Hope it comes in colors don’t you?

Have a great weekend everyone!  I’m sewing some little “Allie” dogs for my Christmas tree!   Pink dogs! 

Back soon!

 

Anne

This is my first quilt…

I may have loved pink, but I lived with red. Cottage red and yellow. 

The date was  January, 1997.  It was the year of Debbie Mumm, brick fabric and the color red.   I took my first quilt class from Laura Nownes.   “Quilts, Quilts, Quilts” by Diana McClun & Laura Nownes was the book.  My copy is FILLED with notes.

Notes that allowed me to make this sampler quilt…

I was obsessed with this quilt.  I loved this craft called quilting and I couldn’t get enough. My first theory  in 1997 was if you made the quilt, you HAD to hand quilt it!  A theory that didn’t last very long.

That’s not binding on the quilt.  It’s the backing basted to the front.  Much of the quilt is still basted together. My first quilt remains unfinished, but at least I can say I tried.  Horrible quilting, but I tried!  Even used the wrong batting, but I still tried.  And the appliqué?  Well, if you messed up a point just take a few extra stitches over it.  Oh my! There’s hope for us all!

My second theory in 1997 was houses had to be made out of brick fabric…I would have NEVER considered pink flowers!  I collected all the brick fabric I could find.  Who knew when I’d need another house? Humm… wonder what happened to all that brick fabric? I bet Laura hid it!

Now this may surprise you, but I still live with red and still love it.  Our master bedroom is filled with red.   That’s not pink on the bed, but a red & white toile.  My first quilt sits on a shelf in this room.  Folded neatly, waiting for the “quilter” to re-appear. 

My most recent quilt, that I can show you is “A Vintage Christmas”.  Pink & Red! 

It goes perfectly in my home at Christmas! 

Chelsea loves my last quilt.  She’s a vintage kind of dog and she loves Christmas!  Right Chelsea? (Disappointed in the plastic veggie tray…she wanted silver I’m sure.) Oh, and did I tell you she LIKES my first quilt?  She told me so this morning! Reminds her of the tomatoes on this veggie tray! 

Thanks Camille and Carrie for thinking up this first quilt idea! 

 

Hugs,

Anne

15 Days and Counting!

And the lion shall lay down with the lamb...

But at my house the lamb is glittered pink, and who knows what color the lion will be. I haven't found a lion I love yet. Humm...wonder if they come in pink?

I started counting the days with this beautiful advent calendar my friend Nancy made for me. (It has pockets and little treats in each pocket!). Well, I got to day 10 and it hit me! 10 plus 15 is 25! No, no, no we can't have Christmas this fast! I'm not ready at all! It seems for every step I take forward I take two steps back. No presents are wrapped, and the UPS truck keeps arriving. I bought everything online this year, so brown boxes are stacking up and to find time to wrap is next to impossible. Do you feel like this? Where did the time go?

I know Christmas will arrive wrapped presents or not, and at least I've finished decorating. It looks like Christmas even if I'm not ready!

I collect snowmen so I thought it only fitting to have a container filled with them. I found an old box, painted it red and then painted snowmen on the front. These are decorating our kitchen!

Ho, Ho, Ho, I got a bit carried away. There were some plain wood eggs just sitting in a bowl and I couldn't stand it. Once I had the red paint out it was so easy to just keep going.

A feather tree with my childhood ornaments sits on our family room coffee table. I can remember a time when I hated these ornaments. I wanted newer ones, different ones, and I kept these in a box in the garage for the longest time. Then one day I took them out, hung them on this tree and knew that they were somehow beautiful. Funny how that happens!

The kitchen counter gets enamelware cups, filled with berry sprays. I put floral foam in the cups to hold the spays.

And the living room gets the tree again this year. It's the perfect place to sit and read. And on Christmas morning this is where we open presents (If they ever get wrapped)!

Aside from collecting bunnies, lambs, snowmen, chocolate molds etc. etc., I also have a bear collection that comes out every Christmas. This is a shared collection because my husband keeps finding bears and we add them to the collection. Most are "rescues" but I've hidden a couple of the pedigree bears in the crowd. You know, like the FAO Swartz bear...he's in there somewhere!

A tic tac game sits on the coffee table every year. It's been played over and over!

And my favorite snowlady...an angel!

So remember those old ornaments when you decorate. Separate them from the rest and give them a place of honor. All of a sudden the won't look so old!

Be sure and sign up for my newsletter if you haven't already. Just go to my web site http://www.bunnyhilldesigns.com , scroll down on the home page and you'll see a place to enter your name etc. I have some fun things planned for next year. Get on the list or you'll be left out! That's all the news for now LOL!

Hugs,

Anne

Oh and stay tuned. I may be hiring gift wrappers very soon.