Christmas In Bloom

With anticipation of Santa in the air, I have been poking around working to make sure The House is ready for his arrival!! There have been all kinds of preparations going on from decorating to gifts to goodies! While I've acquired a number of decorations that are already made, this is the one I created last night!

It all started with these 3-D poinsettia stickers I picked up at Hobby Lobby:

I evoked my outdoor planter technique of gluing together bottle caps and then wrapping them in covering them with fancy ribbon-rope stuck on with a ton of hot glue:

I also stuffed some floral foam in the bottom of the cap before piling some glue on top to get the fake dirt to stick. I think they look fabulous!

Then, I pulled apart a floral piece I have in my stash to get some stems:

I chose these because the wire thickness is just enough to be sturdy without being too bulky. They look like crap now, but, just you wait. 😁

So, all I did take the poinsettia and wrinkle it up just a little to give it some realism:

By the way, that's hot glue making my fingers look like I'm about to be recruited for a lotion commercial. When I say the ribbon-rope part of this project had hot glue everywhere, well, that's an understatement. And, it was really fun!

After the flower smush, I put a blob of hot glue on the back of it. And, with a little bend in the wire, I then stuck on the stem:

Easy. Peasy.

Here's just one of them after "planting" in a sneak peak of how the house looks!

I really, really love the outcome!! And, in just a little bit, you get the full reveal! Stay tuned ...

The Stockings Were Hung By the Chimney With Care ...

By the title of the post, you know what's coming!! I'm pretty proud of this one, so let's just get right to it!

At some point in the last, few months (the days run together, don'tcha know ...), I was wandering through the Christmas goods in Hobby Lobby because I was lured by the 50%-off signs. There are the most fun, little tid-bits that can be used for all sorts of reasons in there, and I figured I'd find something fun for The House. I was weaving between the aisle displays when what to my wondering eye should appear  but the package of Santa hats! I immediately saw stockings in them and grabbed a bag.

Today, the vision came to fruition. From left to right, I reveal THE STOCKINGS:

I didn't take a ton of process pictures because I was on a roll, but I can tell you about it. Basically, in the store, I turned the hat package upside to see the white trim at the top. And, to me, that said "stocking." I figured I could just sew the stocking shape from the hat. And, yes, that's as far as I got. I have this thing about usually being able to do it if I can see it. (It's like getting somewhere because you know exactly where you're going but you couldn't give directions if you had to. Your brain just knows what to do.) Besides, what did I have to lose when it was 50% off of what I seem to recall $1.99. I'm a low-risk kind of gal.

How it happened: I cut the pompom off, turned the hat inside out and freehand-sewed the shape. I didn't get to use quite as much of the red as I anticipated because I needed to keep the white trim level at the top of the stocking. But, it turned out perfect in terms of size, so that limitation became built-in excellence.

The process pic I do have is this one:

Here you see inside-out hats with the pompoms gone. At this stage, I also roughly drew around the first stocking onto the hats so I wouldn't have to keep an eye on where I was really headed with the needle and thread.*

* I had a Hallmark Christmas movie on, after all. I didn't want to be too, entirely distracted! And, for the record, this is the first Hallmark Christmas movie I've seen where the big-business guy actually won the heart of the lead over the small-town, flannel-wearing doctor. I KNOW!

Okay, so in the span of movie time, I got 5 stockings sewn. As there are 5 people who actually live The House, that made sense to me. The most difficult part of this stage was turning the stockings right-side out after sewing. The opening at the top is so small that this was quite an effort. I used the end of a spoon to encourage the turning process by using it to try and shove the material through the top. It was still a bear, but, I got it! Fortunately, the material is reasonably strong, so none of the efforts tore anything. That would have resulted in tears. Just keeping it real.

So, that was last night. Today warranted a trip to Hobby Lobby to see what they had to use as hangers. I have some little hooks that could be used, but they would have to be drilled into the fireplace mantle. I wasn't entirely against this as I had an overnight realization that, worse-coming-to-worse, I can get a second fireplace so I can leave the hooks screwed in to one. (The fireplace is $7, btw. I'm willing to have one in the Christmas stash.) At the same time, I didn't want to have to get a second if there was another solution.

Well, we found one! In the jewelry-making section, the Hub and I found clip-on earring backings:

I saw two possible ways to use them, so, they came home with me. While in the store, I also had the inspiration of trying to attach them to the mantle with the Elmer's putty stuff I use for hanging things instead of having to purchase a second fireplace.

Upon home investigation, when I opened the clasp ...

... it became very apparent what to use. I straightened the hook the pen is pointing to so I could cut off the smaller hook with a wire cutter. Then, I just reshaped the hook with some pliers. I chose the particular hook I used because you can see a little "nob" thing at the top on the back. I wedged a butter knife between the nob and the back of the hook to bend it up to a 90-degree angle. This is what I knew I could use to attach to it the mantle. The process to bend them up was easy enough but a little tricky as too much bending just snapped it off. I only blew two of them, though. GO, ME!

In no time, I had hooks on the mantle!

The putty, of course, got cleaned off between my fingernails and some detailing with the side of a needle:

Now, it just needed the stockings! They got their finishing touches by creating hangers for them. I braided embroidery floss (red and green) and white string (because I have no white embroidery floss 😬):

Then, I sewed it to the back of the stocking:

I went in through the back, went through both ends of the braid on the inside of the stocking and came back out. I did one more round through the back, around the braid and back out again because it helped keep the little knots at the end of the braids under control.

And, when they didn't behave, they got shoved in the stocking with the end of the pliers:

You gotta do what you gotta do ...

And, then, there was this:

How SCRUMPTIOUS is this?!?!?

It looks fab in the living room, but I'll show that when The House gets the full Christmas treatment! I anticipate giving at least some of them more decoration, but, for now, they hang in anticipation of tiny treats ...

Trick Or Treat!

Happy Halloween!!

I grew up in a family not terribly fond of this holiday. I have no judgment of that, but I, on the other hand, really enjoy it! I love seeing the little kids in costume and spoiling them with extra pieces of candy! I particularly loved taking our own kiddos out and about, and we went no matter the weather! Hot, cold and rainy -- it did not matter! Fortunately, in The House, the climate is controlled. And, with that detail already settled, let's take a peek at how Halloween is happening there!

Inside, there are just a few decorations. For instance, the dining table is set up for those who need a chocolaty snack!

I love the cupcakes! I can only take credit for spying and buying them in that little Christmas/miniature store in Michigan this summer. I also recently acquired a stem of the coral-colored flowers, so they will make a few appearances in the decorations!

The family room has just a few things:

Of course, there's a platter of candy. The little jack-o-lanterns are from Hobby Lobby. I just happened upon them one day, and that moment felt like a massive score!

Outside is where it's all really happening! Here are the new decorations:

But, the real show stars the kids!

ARE THEY CUTE OR WHAT?!

I seriously could not love this little scene more! I just ooo and ahh looking at the little pumpkin candy pails. They're cupcake picks that I found at an antique store!

I just cut off the pick, sanded down the little nub, and voila! The PERFECT treat container! The bag's a good deal, too, because it holds a ton of candy!

Polly and Grandma Laura are poised and ready to spoil all visitors:

There's a pooch still begging Grandma for treats while another has relocated away from the excitement.

And, Hal?

He finds himself very clever "in his costume" while still not letting go of that candy stash!

While Polly is occupied, her little friend Eleanor made off with exactly what she's been wanting for quite some time now ...

So, there's lots of tricks and treats and fun around The House! Happy Halloween!

Dressed and Ready!

Halloween costumes during the trick-or-treat years in our house were a really, big deal. It was so much fun to let the kids' imaginations run wild to come up with something super-creative or to watch as they dressed up to become one of their favorite characters! They just loved it! I did, too, but I also had a particular caveat: If they're going to dress up, they're going to look "put together". So, the year My Boy said he wanted to be a ghost, throwing a sheet over his head and calling it good was not going to happen. (I might remain a little traumatized from the year *I* did that ... yikes ...)

His costume remains one of my all-time favorites as it was absolutely wonderful!

And, now, here is the miniature version! Here we go!

I was so proud of the real costume for My Boy that I have kept it all of these years. Therefore, I decided to use it for one of the kids (the one that "represents" my own boy) in The House! I made it pretty much the same way as the real one, too ...

First, I took a hack at the bottom layer sheet of the real one:

So, yeah. It starts with a regular-ol', stuffed-in-storage pile of sheets. But, it evolves! You will note there are no straight lines cut for this. My method was and is a little haphazard, but the result is just what I want!

While the bottom layer is a regular sheet, there's a layer of this sheer stuff over it:

This is what gave the real-life ghost some serious flow when he ran from house to house! And, he could see through it, so it just added to the ghost mystique! My Boy's actually had two layers of sheer, but one suffices here.

Here's the sheet layer:

I evened up the bottom line (where there would normally be a hem) as much as possible over his head, and then I used a little elastic, stretchy stuff to tie around his neck to keep it in place. (The real costume was affixed to an earwarmer/headband thing to stay in place.) In the picture above, you can see the left side is a little too long. Too much drag predicts some stumbles, don'tcha know! I simply picked it up and started cutting around the bottom taking care only to try and keep it close to ground level. But, straight lines? Um, no. No one cares.

Yup, looks like crap. But, in this case, that's either a good thing or affects nothing negatively. I've never studied it to find out.

Next up, I put on the sheer layer:

This gets the same treatment of tying the elastic around the neck to keep in place then snipping around the bottom until it looks good.

And, after a few snips for arm holes, it definitely looks good!

In the real-life version, I put black eye shadow all around My Boy's eyes to make them stand out from behind the sheer layer. I skipped that part here. 😀

The other two trick-or-treaters in The House are also ghosts. The other boy got the sheet treatment (aka: totally different scrap of white fabric in my stash) but still looks really cute. I used this same material for the girl, but hers needed a little bling on the bottom (just like my own girl would have had she ever wanted to be a ghost):

I simply ran the Stickles "Crystal" glitter glue around the edges
while it was on her. I probably should have taken it off to do it
"properly," but who has time for that? 😅

Here's the trio totally ready for action!

They can't wait for tricks and treats! And, I can't wait to show 'em off ...!!

Decorating Season Is In Full Swing!

For years, I've called October 1 the start of Decorating Season! It's three, full months of reason to really go for the decor!! To that end, Fall is in full throttle in The House!! My first creative inspiration in the past few weeks came from the fact that I, personally, love Fall foliage in the form of mums! I grow 'em, I buy 'em, I anxiously watch to see them come back ... it's just such a fabulous extension of pretty in the gardens once the summer blooms are gone! So, this house needed some foliage adornment, too!

To create it, I dug into my stash of "not yet sure why I'm keeping this" stuff and pulled out bottle caps. A few months ago, I did envision using them as some kind of planter, so, when the Fall goods hit the shelves in Hobby Lobby, I picked up the spool of -- Is it rope? Is it twine? Even the label doesn't say! -- to cover the caps:

First, I used Quick Grip glue to create large planters:

I thought I would try to cut out the bottom of the top cap, but that idea went to the wayside when I realized how very hard the material is to cut. Wanting to spare myself of slicing injury, I decided and realized that I didn't have to have deep planters. They just needed to look deep. Covering the seam of each would do it, so I saved myself a step in the process!

Next, I whipped out the hot glue and got to sticking:

Keeping just ahead of the rope-twine stuff, I glued-glued-glued round-and-round-and-round and voila!

I also made two candy baskets from single caps. I lined them with a fabric scrap then hot glued the twine around and around:

Fancy!

Here are all of the thus-far Fall efforts in action! On the patio, we see the two mum planters I've made to this point. Also, Hal got kicked off the bench by four-legged Eleanor who continues to beg for popcorn. So, he's making the best of it not only by keeping the big pot of candy near but also by bogarting the new basket of Halloween-specific treats:

He's all, "Joke's on you. I have almost all of the candy! Nee-ner, nee-ner."

Over on the other end of The House, Grandma Laura swapped her single roll of LifeSavers for a basket of chocolaty goodness.

She may or may not have any left for the trick-or-treaters,
but she most assuredly will not share with the
begging pooch.

Here's what's happening along The House edges! I found some artificial Fall flowers at the Dollar Store and just started pulling them apart and sticking them places:

The secret to speedy success was not wanting them tall. Therefore, all of the short flowers are simply ones I cut all the way to their bases:

In doing so, I can just place them on the mulch and move on! Taller foliage got the pin-wrapped-in-floral-tape treatment on the stem to stick into the mulch. But, most of it is just sitting there making for some fast but lovely decor! Buh-BAM!

Oh, let's not forget the very front:

The mums, by the way, are Fall themed trees designed for model train exhibits. I just pulled them apart and shaped (sometimes by hot gluing parts together) how I wanted. Those, too, are just sitting on the mulch.

And, here's the very front:

Of course, The House cannot go without holiday lights! You see the tinge of purple in the picture above. That's the strand of bat lights running under the ceiling of the porch. I'm also loving these little pumpkin lights along the front rail:

And, what's a Halloween theme without a few ghosts?!

There are, most definitely, more decorations to come! And, what's Halloween without a few trick-or-treaters?? Stay tuned ...