Decking the halls

Ah yes, it's begun! After my insomniacal (?) adventures last night (see previous post!), I got busy working today. Not on anything on the Christmas gift list, unfortunately, but busy nonetheless! It was a gorgeous sunny day—blue skies, not a cloud floating by, nippy temperatures but the sun shone brightly! A perfect day for . . .

. . . decking my front door! This year it's not the shiny metallic paper, but this plain red was on sale. It works for me! I put a small wreath on the door, too, made from greens picked up on a walk with the dogs yesterday. (Don't get me started on the story about nearly losing a shoe in the blackberries in the forest—that is the last time I let the dogs pick which direction we go off-trail!) Welcome to my house!!

. . . picking out my Christmas tree! Mmmmmm just looking at this closeup of the branches makes me think I can smell it. Oh wait—it's in the room! Yes, I can smell it! (neener neener!) I'm one of those who definitely goes for the good-smelling trees; I do like the branches on a noble, but the douglas just has that Christmas scent that can't be beat! This one is 7 feet tall and came from the Little League tree stand in my neighborhood that I've supported for years now; it's great seeing the young boys working so hard! Things did come to a dead halt for a moment when the radio announcer yelled about someone going downfield and scoring; I guess the boys like football as well as baseball! I'll post some pics of the tree and ornaments once I decorate.

. . . making wreaths! I just love fresh greens—and this is a giant wreath I make each year. It carries the Christmas scent into a room I spend a lot of time in that doesn't hold my tree . . . and I have another wreath right above my bed so I can inhale that Christmas goodness as I fall asleep and wake up! I have baskets of greens in other places around the house too. I mix a lot of different greens, a few kinds of fir, some holly, an unidentified bush with berries, and various small greens; I look for varying textures and shades to mix together.

. . . putting up the lights! This year I treated myself to some new lights for the house; last year the set of purple translucent lights just looked so doggy. You know when the color starts chipping off the bulbs, then the single-look begins to look more like shades of a color? Ugh! So when I went to pick out new lights, I realised if I had shopped on Friday like the rest of the shoppers, I might have had a choice of more than the multicolored lights. Ah well, lights are lights, and they're up now! This is the first year at this house that I've ever put up lights without doing it in the rain or snow—typically I'm worried about falling off a slippery ladder! This time I only had to be concerned about being blinded by the bright sun.

I made this wreath last night while visiting a friend and watching White Christmas together; I used the same general directions as for the tree I posted yesterday from Splitcoast Stampers. (The short version: strips of paper pinned to a styrofoam form.) Someone on TwoPeas made a wreath and said she used 6" x 1" strips; but I used 4" x 1" (like the SCS tree) because I think my form was much smaller than the one she had used. I didn't have 2-sided Christmas papers, but I spraymounted sheets of 12x12 together to fake it; that's a great way to use up some of those papers in the DCWV stack that I don't foresee a lot of use for! At right is a photo showing the size ratio of the wreath.

So I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy and Christmassy now . . . and pooped! But I'm going to try to make one gift tonight, that's a small goal, and I have several hours to achieve it. As long as I don't fall asleep here in my big comfy chair, that is . . .