Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas to all our friends


We are so thankful for the
birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
He is our life, and he 
touches our lives every day!

Merry Christmas

Robin

Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas in our Home





It is such a joy to be
HOME!
 Each day we are here, I soak in all
of the things that I love, and the world that
surrounds me.
We travel so much that when we are home,
I just want to enjoy every minute 
of the peace that I feel in my home.

This year I made a few changes in our Decorating.
I decided to use book pages as my theme.
So, I must say, I have ripped apart
a few books around here.


Our home is very eclectic.
When we bought it, it was a true fixer upper.
Today, it is very comfy, and
most people when they visit tell us
this is the home they just feel comfortable in,
anyone is welcome.

We will start in the living room.
It is across from the dinning room
our previous post.
The fireplace was already here, made from rocks gathered
from all over the Uintah Basin, where we live.
It is quite rustic.


I love and have collected a few angels over the years,
they are all over the living room.
This sign was in my mothers Christmas boxes
that we went through and shared with brothers and sisters.


The bay window is filled with
a trio of trees
decorated in white, gold, and silver.


Under the trees is our Nativity.
I bought and painted it the 2nd year of our 
marriage, so it is quite special to us.
I still do not have all the pieces, and this
year I will look for someone that 
does ceramics so I can finish the rest of the pieces
for this beautiful set.

On the old phonograph is this vignette.
Stephanie, my sister in law made this
cute trio of angels from old spindles and metal.
They live in the living room all year long.
Next to them is my newest nativity we brought home
from Guatemala.


Here is my jester.
I used to have him out all year long too,
and maybe this year I will not pack him away,
we will see.
His head is from a puppet I played with as a child, 
he lived in our toy box for years and my mom
gave him to me when I had children.
I have always been taken with his happy face.
Many years ago, I took him
and fabric to a special designer,
Nettie's Gnomes in Springville, Utah
to make me a jester.
She had him for years, when I finally called her
and said, I need to have him back, 
he is a special antique from Germany.
She did make him, and gave his head a body.
He is very special in our home. 


Here is another nativity that sits at the hearth of 
our fireplace.  The star above
the nativity, I found at the German Christmas 
markets 2 years ago.

Now we go through the dining room into the kitchen,
really the kitchen and dining room are all 
one big room.


I just love this picture of Mary and baby Jesus.
I had it framed in the frame store years ago that we owned.
It needed lots of mat so the picture really was the 
center of life.
This picture is painted by Simon Dewey.
I love his work, wish I had more.

Just a fun display of trees, and white dishes (my favorite)


This kitchen counter has just a simple display
of White and red, the only red I left in the decorating.
It's because I want to decorate my kitchen in
these colors. The salt and pepper
shakers were my inspiration for this,
Some time I will get this done and share with you.

I love the white board ceramic easel,
it has proven to be more than I had intended it to be,
my Ipad fits on it perfectly,
so I can read recipes from it as I cook.

The pantry door I showed how to paint
in a previous post, 
it is just so fun in this kitchen.
And what I like even better is the organization 
inside, a project we completed
a year ago. It is in a previous post too.
Love my wreath I made, 
book pages just tied in bows
and clear ornaments with ripped pages inside.


Our kitchen window looking out into the yard.
My white orchid is in bloom right now.
Love our greenhouse and the wonderful
things it does for the plants!
the crowns remind me of the
3 Kings who came to
bring gifts to baby Jesus.
I collect crowns now, just a few,
and during the Christmas season,
there are 3 crowns on window sills
through out the house.




Just a few more photos of little
things around the house.

Merry Christmas to you!

Enjoy the season.

Thanks for visiting our home.

Robin


Saturday, December 14, 2013

Our Christmas Trees

Merry Christmas!

Over the years I have simplified Christmas,
and our trees are one of 
those things that have become very
fun and fast.

I sprayed the trees with fake snow
after I put the lights on them.
This a trio of trees, 
I decorate them once every
5 or 6 years, leave them decorated
and then wrap them up at the end of each Christmas
season.  Then when next year comes
I just unwrap and put them in our
bay window, already decorated!!!!
So easy and awesome.


Here they are, 
I did redecorate this year,
taking everything to White, Gold, and Natural,
with a touch of book pages.

I always put our Nativity under the tree.
We don't do presents for each other,
so the Savior is the best part of under the tree.

This year I painted the back of the stable
black and made a stencil 
of the saying and painted on the 
back of the stable.


It turned out so fun.
And gives the finishing touch to our
Nativity that I feeling it was missing.
Perfect!


Our ornaments on the tree are angels,
Nativities, and stars.
A few glitter ornaments of course.
I like the angels in the tree
as I feel like they are singing
Joy to the World,
and rejoicing for the birth of
the Savior.


This ornament we found at the 
Christmas markets in Germany a few years ago.


 Some of our ornaments come from around 
the world, where we have visited and 
where we have lived.  Some of the ones
in these pictures are from Ethiopia.


The Yellow baby Jesus was made by my
Aunt who lives in Germany.
Wax ornaments are a precious and
expensive items at the Christmas Markets.
I feel honored to have such a wonderful
ornament from her.


Baby Doe comes from our years in college,
I worked at a store that used her face for all of their
signing, and huge pictures of her
hanging from the ceilings. 

So when they were all being thrown
away, I salvaged them and made her faces
into ornaments.
We also have a large framed picture of her
that I bring out each 
Christmas Season.

Well, our 3 small trees
are tucked neatly in the bay window.
their white lights glisten 
all day and in the evening.
This is our way of celebrating
Joy to the World.

Centering our tree around
Jesus, the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas!

Robin


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Christmas Chandelier

Christmas is just so special.
This year for 7 days of December
we had visitors
at our home!

They are gone now, and I am missing
the sounds of children playing,
little finger prints on everything, and
just the joy of having family close.

I just finished more of the ornaments
that we made for out blog hop.
I decided to put them on our 
dining room chandelier.


Here is the dining room.  It is small but cozy.
The dining room chairs have a
bow tied on each one of them with 
tasseled curtain wraps.
I have done this for so long, 
I can't remember how many years ago I started this.
Under the table is a throw rug from Ethiopia,
It is made from sheep hair (no wool there)
woven by hand on large looms.
Rachel brought this home with her when
she came to visit us there.  
I love this rug!


I love to decorate for Christmas,
I have done it for years, and decorating my
chandelier is one of my "things"
I just do.
This year was the change,  I took all the red
out of the decorations and went to
book page, black, white, and green.


First I wrapped the chandelier with a garland,
Then a book page wide ribbon, tying it in spots around
the garland so it would have a swag.
Then I added ornaments.
Glass gold and green ornaments were tied with white
ribbon on the bottom of each light.
Then I added the ornaments I made for the blog hop.
I had to make more ornaments this week to fill the chandelier.


These are some close ups of the ornaments hanging
on the chandelier.
I used:
Glitter Chipboard - gold and silver
Classic Glitter Swirl CS in white (made the medallions from this)
White tear drops
Silver dew drops
Black herringbone CS
Clock CS
Classified Sticker (small clock faces)
old paperback books


On the bottom of each of the bells,
I used a corsage pin and a black crystal 
from Connies Crystals,
one of our blog partners this year.


Each ornament is unique in its own way.
I also added some clock faces to some of them.


I'm really happy how this all turned out.
Our new look for Christmas,
at home with us.

Have a wonderful week.
Have a Very Merry
Christmas Season!

Robin

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Deck the Halls

Hello again,
Are you feeling festive?

I am,
and I am loving the season for sure.

This photo is of our grandchildren last year in front
of our Christmas Tree
on Christmas Eve.
We had dinner together, and opened
a few small presents for them.

They are such a cute bunch,
and I decided to share this with you.


I'm just a little partial to them for sure.

Product used:
Christmas Tree Border CS
Cindy Lou Dot CS
Cindy Lou Stripe CS
Cindy Lou Stickers
Red Mini Dew Drops
Green Diamond Drops

All other products from my scrapbook stash.

I'm sure I can hear the music now,
Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly.

I'll be humming it all day.

Have a Great Christmas Season.

Ciao,



Robin