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Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts



Hello Friends!
I'm baking brownies right now (Ghirardelli with chocolate chips).  I have 15 more minutes until they are done! I can hardly wait, the smell is wonderful!  As I'm waiting, I've been looking for a little Christmas inspiration for my Family Room. I always need a little boost of  CREATIVITY to get the wheels in motion for my Holiday Decorating.  I start getting the itch to decorate for the Holidays as soon as Halloween is over. How about you?
 I found this picture from Pottery Barn on Pinterest. I love everything in this picture! I especially love the adorable little brown wagon! As I look at the charming Christmas decor in this beautiful family room. I think about the Symbols Of Christmas.  We are all expressing our love and joy for Christmas through our Holiday Decor. We are displaying candles, the traditional colors of Christmas, along with garlands and wreaths decked out in beautiful ribbon and bows and most importantly the true meaning of Christmas, a reminder from the letters spelling Noel. The time is flying by and soon Thanksgiving will be upon us. I cherish the season.

 I love the smell of Christmas Trees, and the cozy comforts of quilts, twinkling lights and the love of family and friends. I love it all, and that is why this Christmas blog came about. Although, my blog has evolved into all Seasons of Creativity and Inspiration for Home and Family. I appreciate you all following along on this fun creative journey.  Thank you Dear Christmas friends! I love your visits, your emails and your sweet comments. Thank you to my Etsy friends. It's been a busy and fun Fall Season.


Last year, I started the Twelve Days Of Creative Christmas on my blog. I want to do the same this year, as I work on projects for my own Home and Family.  It's a joy to create, a joy to share and a joy to spend it with all of you!  Tis the Season my friends!


You Are The Apple Of My Eye
 CHRISTMAS APPLES 

  Christmas Apples are made with red and white stripe ticking fabric,
decked with cinnamon sticks,  red berries, grapevine wreath, ribbon, bakers twine and pine cones.

A great gift for family and friends, especially TEACHERS!
A charming addition to Holiday Decor.

Add a Christmas Tag:
"You Are The Apple Of My Eye"
Merry Christmas!



Christmas Apples
available through the Holiday Season
in my Etsy shop.
Creations by Brenda 
Thanks for visiting!



Hello Everyone!
Welcome new followers!
I HEART you all!
We've been on Fall Break.
I'm returning from a fun filled busy week!
Here are a few Christmas Creations from Pinterest along with a few creations I'm working on!
It's so fun to CREATE for CHRISTMAS!
Enjoy!
Source: spenceandheidi.blogspot.com via Brenda on Pinterest

Source: azcentral.com via Brenda on Pinterest
 Source: bethproudfoot.blogspot.com via Brenda on Pinterest
Source: bhg.com via Brenda on Pinterest


 Welcome the Holidays with Handmade Creations!
 Christmas Creations that bring Holiday Cheer to your Holiday Decor!
(Image from Better Homes and Garden.)
I was excited to find this Christmas arrangement from bhg in my email today, as it is similar to my 
Seasonal Fall Decor post shown HERE.


This pottery vase has proven to be very versatile for all seasons.
From Winter, Valentines, Easter/Spring, 4TH of July to Fall and Christmas.
BELIEVE In The SEASON.

Adorable lollipops from Better Homes and Garden
Sweet Treats
    Make a tasty felt lollipop by sandwiching a poster board circle between two decorated felt circles; sew the stack together with a blanket stitch, leaving a small opening for the stick. Cut a length of dowel and insert it in the bottom of the lollipop. Hot-glue a ribbon bow to the dowel and display in a small vase filled with tiny marshmallows.

I'm a fan of these adorable treats--you may remember my "Sweet Treats" from
The Twelve Days Of Creative Christmas 
Candy Cane Countdown


Joyous Noel:  Fabric Scraps created into a Christmas Tree--Love the RED Frame!
 Handmade Red Burlap Pillow with white (paint) stenciling
"Cute As A button" Wreath (below)
A great gift for your crafty friends.
Who doesn't love buttons?


Enjoy!
(images from bhg)
I will return with Pine Cones!
I'm buried in projects, mostly Home Improvement for the Holidays!
I'm working on new pillows, recovering chairs, spray painting, and the list goes on!
I'm also sewing apples and pumpkins and cupcakes oh my!
(Thank you Dear Etsy friends).
What are you  working on?
Beautiful Fall Days are HERE!
It's wonderful!
Thank you friends for visiting!



Here's to
A little Burlap Inspiration! 


Beautiful Burlap Pillows
 womansday.com

Burlap Gift
2.  google.com

Burlap Party Bags
3.  southernliving.com

Chalkboard with Burlap Bow
4.  buckets of burlap.blogspot.com

Burlap Mannequin
5. dearlillieblog.blogspot.com

TRICK OR TREAT PILLOWS
6. etsy.com

Sweet Burlap Accessories
7. jaysonandashley.blogspot.com

Christmas Burlap Stockings
I see burlap stockings everywhere!
8.  makeit-love-it.com
9. eabdesigns.typepad.com


10.  google.com
11.  dearlillieblog.blogspot.com

I love the CREATIVITY of BURLAP!
I'm truly inspired--I hope you are too!

12.  freckledlaundry.com
13.  burlap banner/etsy.com

Do what you LOVE.....LOVE what you do!
What is your favorite burlap creation?
I love the burlap mannequins.
I'm working on new pumpkins
with a little touch of burlap!
Burlap creations coming soon!
Thanks for visiting!

Hey Howdy Hey---Have a GREAT DAY!

Hello everyone!
It's Fun Friday!
I'm sharing more Pinterest Favorites!
This one comes from:
When I saw the red and white polka dot wrapping paper along
with adorable baby feet, I knew this was something great!
(I'm posting this Christmas idea early, so TIME is on your side).

The idea  is to wrap 24 favorite Christmas Books and let your
kids pick a book each night or each day to read through out the month of December.
I know this tradition may not be new for you, but the idea of
wrapping your books in Christmas paper, preferably polka dot wrapping paper,
and numbering your Christmas Books is adorable!

I'm a big fan of Christmas Books, especially
Children's Christmas books
With six children, I have a pretty good Christmas collection gong on!
I started many years ago purchasing one Christmas book each year for my kids.
I think it's a wonderful gift on Christmas Eve with a new pair of Christmas PJ's.
(great encouragement for bed time on Christmas Eve!)

There are many cute Advent Calendars that can be used with this idea.
One reminder, I wish I would have written the year inside our Christmas books.
I will be reviewing a NEW Christmas Book Titled
The Santa Club by Kelly Moss
coming my way in the next few days.
I will keep you posted.
Enjoy!
"As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness,
you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you"

Dieter F. Uchtdorf


“I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.” - Goethe


 
What you are looking at is approximately two and one-half years in the making.  The tower of CDs represents the 240+ Christmas albums I've downloaded in that span of time from various Christmas blogs and sharity sites around the Internet.  Various blogs?  Half of these came from that mad genius Ernie (not Bert)...  thanks for doing your part for the economy Ern!

At the beginning of 2009, I was overwhelmed by the task of getting everything organized and burned.  So it began to pile up here, some over there, and everything that was downloaded was uploaded onto a Western Digital 500 GB external hard drive.

After getting a new computer last year, I began cataloging all of the albums onto my master spreadsheet; a task that probably would have taken me a month if I really worked at it.  But I didn't work at it that hard.  I took a rather leisurely pace, causing it to stretch on and on well into the summer and fall.

As soon as the cataloging was done, I began assembling and labeling the CD-Rs for each CD, printing out the artwork for each CD, and keeping each CD in alphabetical order so the burning process would be streamlined.  

About a month into this phase, the 2010 Christmas season was underway.  Another 100+ albums were added thanks to Christmas gifts, my own purchases, several donations to my PO Box, and the generous (and boy do I MEAN generous) Christmas sharity community.  Back to square one with more cataloging and assembling.

In the middle of all of this physical assembly and organization, I made an important decision.  Since 1/3 of my collection had come from Christmas shares and was digitized already, I bit the bullet and began to make plans to digitize the other 2/3 of the collection - possibly eliminating the need for burned CDs in the future.

So while I was adding new entries onto my spreadsheet, I was working on FOUR other spreadsheets: the first was keeping track of all the Christmas downloads for the past year, the second was organizing what Christmas shares I needed to burn to CD, the third was determining what Christmas albums (including artwork) that are or aren't digitized.

Armed with the lists, I now go forth.  Starting with A&M's 1997 In Store Christmas Sampler and ending with Christmas With Zamfir, I will be working on digitizing all of the Christmas CDs in my collection.

Count as of 3/5/2011:  


1,572 albums

25,508 songs


During this process, I will try to post links of the albums I've downloaded over the past four years.  This way, the two or three people who read this blog will be able to listen to the albums I've burned or will be burning.  

I'll actually be able to listen to some of these albums for the first time (remarkable, huh?) and maybe add a one or two line comment on each album.

The whole purpose of this blog was to keep track of new additions to my collection.  In posting the links, I'll be doing two jobs at once.  We'll see how this will end up...  Stay tuned.


Capt



The album you are looking at holds a special spot in my collection.  It was one of the first Christmas albums I actively searched for when I seriously began collecting Christmas music.  It also was the first album I ever shared online (first at FaLaLaLaLa.com, then here).  

And it's still one of the most popular shares in my sharity list  (over 800 downloads since I first posted this).

Since I'm a sentimental guy, I decided when I got my new USB turntable in hopes of remastering many of my older shares that this would be the first album that would get the star treatment.

I think Mae West would have been pleased.

I had rescanned the covers (300 dpi) and the record labels and was getting ready to drop the needle to re-record the glorious tones of Ms. West.

But...

I was reading my new copy of Goldmine Magazine and discovered a vendor selling a new Canadian import 2-for-1 CD.  In addition to this album, you get West's 1970 album "The Fabulous Mae West" that features 11 songs and was issued in conjunction with her appearance in the dreadful movie "Myra Breckinridge".

Best Buy's online site tells us that this was released on January 4, 2011.  Soooooo, I've taken the old share offline and sadly, I won't be posting the new remastered version.  


Do us a favor - read through my sharity list and see which titles jump out at you.  Which of these albums should be given the full remastered treatment?


Leave us a comment and let me know your choices...  who knows, I might be able to post something new!




Capt

It's COLD outside! Sending warm winter treats your way!
A fun treat for family, friends, neighbors and everyone you love!
Ingredients:
Hot Cocoa
Chocolate candy bars
 swiss rolls(made from towels)
Warm Socks wrapped in a mug
optional gift items:  Gloves, Hat, scarf
Put two cup holders together for four compartments!

I embellished a "To Go" cup holder with scrapbook paper, ribbons, rick rack and tags.
A treat that can be useful for many holidays!




Great for Teachers!

Stay tuned for Valentines treats!
New etsy creations arriving soon:
Childrens Bags, Scripture Bags and Baby Creations!

Stay Warm!
Links: