Tried and true with a smidge of something new on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well that turned out to be a much busier week than I thought... and it was more productive than I thought too...  I got all my Christmas decor out of the bins and arranged ... I stuck pretty much with the same arrangements I had last year... tried and true, because I was exhausted from all the decorating... now what contributed mightily to being exhausted is the realization that I have TOO MUCH STUFF... and even after covering almost every surface in the living room and half of the kitchen, there was still SO MUCH STUFF left in the bins. There is gonna be a major purge here before the 1st of the year. 

Just about every season so far I've been reducing the number of bins I have... now I still have WAY TOO MUCH, but it is less than I had before... and that is a good thing, right?  (Here's is where you nod in agreement to make me feel better...LOL) I'm at that age when I wonder how much longer can I do all this decorating? or even want to do all this decorating?  I remember as a kid that we  decorated for Christmas and at Halloween we put cardboard cutouts of pumpkins and ghosts and black cats in the front window, but it is nothing like that any more, is it?   My Mom had one style of decorating for basically 11 months of the year... and it was fine... I'm just not sure what exactly I would do if I didn't do seasonal stuff... I'm certainly not modern, or a minimalist... how would I ever decide on just ONE centerpiece for the dining room table or ONE quilt for the wall in the living room?? I probably can't because I had way too much trouble just settling on several of my Christmas displays. 

So I've been  saying I was going to start with a NEW Christmas tree, with colored lights...ooooohhhh... and Nick & I set it up and I was underwhelmed... 

I know this isn't a great picture and while I did love the color lights it just seemed small and scrawny... and to be perfectly honest I wasn't looking forward to undecorating the old tree and redecorating the new one... so the scrawny tree sat in the window for several days when I had an idea...let's put the old tree up on the table and  add a smidge of something new... I bought 2 strings of colored lights and 2 lengths of a super fluffy silver and colored garland and I put them on the old tree and as the French say,  viola... this makes me happy!!

Now it is chock full of ornaments and they all have memories attached to them... several Hallmark Light & Motion  ornaments from the 80's that still work like that train ... I love the bubble lights like the ones that were on my Grandma's tree ...and yes that is a deviled egg ornament... a gift from my older son who LOVES my deviled eggs... and you can see the fluffy sparkly multi -colored garland ... very maximalist!

and the ornaments covered in sequins that my Mom made the last year she was on earth... 

which was over 40 years ago... and you can't have Christmas without memories of the past now can you?

Nick was a HUGE help in getting all my decorating done and while I was dithering about what to  concerning the tree we did this...

the green velveteen slipcover I first talked about in February of this year... OMG... I knew it was a while ago but I didn't realize how long this slipcover has been waiting to be put on... at first I dragged my feet because Elliott was still in his "let's build a house out of all the couch cushions and quilts" phase... it seems to have passed, at least at my house. Now I remember saying this is going to make a BIG statement and it does!!!  I LOVED it when we first put it on... and then that evening I has second thoughts ... it seems even brighter at night if that is possible...LOL... but now that a few days have passed I am so HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY with it...   It is over top ... a maximalist piece!! I don't know why I want a green velveteen couch, I just do!!  And this isn't just going to be for Christmas... this is going to stay green, forever... or until I get another wild hair and fixate on a new color... LOL

As for some other decor in the living room, I put up the display with the mix of vintage and current Shiny Brite ornaments... 

and below is the small shelf unit... Olive, the other reindeer is keeping an eye on things...

There is J'Arrive by Tournicoton...and a trio of little Gurley caroler candles... these are repros but I remember my Mom having them...  I got mine here...

I do love those Santa head mugs but I couldn't squeeze another one on that shelf... I tried... maybe I could stack a couple on top of each other...hmmm.... gotta think about that  because I have 2 more that I put elsewhere ... and as much as I don't want to admit it, I  may need to stop adding to some of my collections... I have run out of room... so sad.... 

On the left I have Little Bits of Christmas from The Drawn Thread ...

On the right I have The Best Time of the Year  from With thy Needle and Thread....

I'm still happy with the Prairie Schooler Santa's I stitched last year... these were from the chart Merry Mini Surprise  No. 215...

And I finished stitching the 3rd Santa from Prairie Schooler No. 135  Good Saint Nick ... but I haven't got them FFO'd yet... maybe today...

I did finish stitching on the snippet of Santa and his reindeer from the same PS No. 135 chart... 

And I started on Little Nick from Notforgotten Farm... I think I'm going to add some red bead for the berries on the holly and a bell on his hat. 

And I remembered that last year I stitched this Cinder Klaus also from Notforgotten Farm last year... he also is getting bell on the end of his hat.

I'm thinking next Christmas I may do a dough bowl full of Santas as I should have about a dozen of them... and then I'll have to stitch some more to back fill the displays I have them in now... always something new to stitch!  I like that! And to that end I order a couple more Prairie Schooler Santa charts... one can NEVER have too many Santas!!

I think I'm going to move on to some Winter stitching... or even pick back up one of the many many BIG samplers I have started in '24... I'm already mulling over what I want to do in ' 25... not making any resolutions but I still do want to add more samplers to the walls in my living room and craft room... maybe more samplers and just a bit of seasonal... that would be a nice mix... and it is a great plan till something new and shiny comes along and I'm led astray...again and again and again...LOL

As I was searching past posts I also came across several quilts I started last year... there's a Momo and a Debbie Mumm and a Stack N Whack that are all calling my name.  And I still want to do some major reorganizing of the fabric shelves in my sewing room.... I will NEVER... EVER.... run out of stuff to do!

Some of the productivity of this week had to do with getting things done around the house... on Monday John my favorite electrician came. He's done work on the house before... turns out the electrical issue wasn't a problem... it was working the way it should. Water got into the connection where the inflatables were plugged in and it tripped the GFS Ground Fault circuit interupter... all that was needed was to push in that little tab that popped out... now I know what to do...and he gave me some good ideas for how to keep the water out of the connections for the inflatables.  On Tuesday Dan came and put down 21 bales of pine straw... I've never used this for mulch before but I really like how it looks ... and it covered up all the left over stuff that grew back after I cleaned out the beds back in October. 

On Wednesday the window company came and looked at the broken window and the 2 windows that don't lock completely on the sunroom porch. They took measurements and will make new windows to replace them... covered under warranty... will be ready in about 4-5 weeks. On Thursday my cleaning lady came and freshened up the kitchen and bathrooms and Nick and I took a bunch of stuff back to Kohls that I purchased on Amazon... felt good to get them returned. On Friday we joined friends to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas show... it was AWESOME!!  The music, the lights, the spectacle... it is an over the top performance.... here's a link to a bit of the show from about 2 years ago... they change the show up each year but this give you a flavor of it.   Now is is LOUD and there is so much bass you can feel it in the back of your seat, but it was FUN!!  and afterwards we went out to dinner... it was a GREAT evening!

Looking at next week along with Elliott I have lunch with my quilty lady friends and dinner with another friend and some errands to run ... and I'm pretty sure other stuff will come up.  Today I'm waiting for Dan the handyman to swing by... I have a couple of minor projects I need taken care of... the most important is a new handle on the back breezeway storm door that is our primary entrance.. I have no clue how old that storm door is but I know it's OLD and Thursday (which was bitterly cold) I went to open it and the handle broke, the metal just snapped... and now if you close the storm door, from the inside you have to play with the little metal latch bar to get it open, but if you are on the outside there is NO WAY to get the door open!!  Yes I have a front door, but since I enclosed the porch you now enter through another storm door, into the porch and then you get to the front door. But I ALWAYS lock that storm door so no one can just waltz in... I know, 1st world problems, making things inconvenient... but Dan will fix it, along with a new light switch in the laundry room, and oil the overhand fan in Nick's room and put the screw and bolt back in Nick's recliner... taking care of the little stuff...

Only 17 more days till Christmas... yikes!! I still have a bit of shopping to do ... and hope to do it all online... and there's a Christmas quilt that still needs a binding (it has been quilted since January... OMG I am slug)...and if I want to do cards I need to get my butt in gear.  Every year I wish that December was a bit longer..

Hope your week ahead is a good one! I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out the pretties over there...

happy stitching-

carol fun