Felted Wool (What Else?) Zip Cosmetic Bag

I love wool! I made this cosmetic zip bag from a recycled wool felted sweater. It is very soft. I cut two pieces 5 x 8" and sewed in a zipper at the top. I applied the felted flowers on the front side, then sewed the edges together with a simple zig zag stitch.

Then I sewed a felted ball onto the zipper pull. And that is it! Now it is ready to hold my cosmetics, my cell phone and charger, or whatever else I need to stow away!Here is a close up of the inside...the back of the bag is just plain green.
This is a great way to use old wool sweaters!

The Best Christmas Present Ever

This little wooden chair is 75 years old. Mom's aunt Jessie Marie (everyone called her Marie) gave the chair to mom around the time she started walking, mom guesses around 18 months. Marie died sometime in her twenties and never married or had children of her own. Mom has a picture of herself in this chair with her mom, but isn't sure of the picture's exact location. We plan to go through old family pictures and organize and
label them some time this spring.There is a crack in the seat and one of the rungs has been replaced by my uncle Bob. It used to be orange and has been painted red now, still some orange peeks through.

My great niece Elena had her picture taken on the little red chair today...she pointed out that it was a very small chair and then she fell off of it!

My own baby had his fifteen month pictures taken with this chair. Isn't he so cute? He is fifteen today...

My niece Ruth Ellen loved to sit on the chair when she visited Grandma and Grandpa's house.

This sweet Boyd's bear sat on in on Mom's fabric cabinet at home, so the bear came with the little red chair. I can't imagine receiving a better Christmas present ever!

It will be one of my most treasured possessions....it looks so cute underneath the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas! I love the happy faces...
The surprise on the face of my son when he gets what he wants...

The quiet smiles...

the anticipation of what lies within that pretty wrapping paper...

the letters to Mr. Claus and the cookies and milk and of course the reindeer snacks...

Sitting on Santa's lap...the same Santa each year, of course...this year Sam asked Santa for a net to catch a small cat in...Santa asked Sam if he had a small cat and Sam proudly answered YES! Santa was jiggling and kept saying HO HO HO...he just kept laughing! And Santa did bring Sam a net to catch a small cat in that year (and I bet he had a lot of trouble finding a butterfly net in the dead of winter!)

The jumping with joy to get a monkey and a teddy bear!

Happiness and contentment....

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, peace, joy, contentment, happiness and the grace and mercy of God this wonderful season!

Surprise!!

Imagine my surprise when I wide awake at 1:30 in the morning and stumbled across this on one of my favorite blogs! The felted wool wreath ornaments that I posted on Censational Girl's Ornament Party was mentioned by Ms. CG in the recap of the party! How very exciting! Here is my original post! I also have these for sale in my etsy shop!

Houston, We have a problem!

Remember our beautiful Christmas tree? Well, we have been watering it often and were very pleased with it...Very nice, right up until yesterday evening when I noticed there were a LOT of evergreen needles under the tree all around and on top of the presents.

So I cleaned moved all the presents and vacuumed all around the tree. That taken care of, I went to sleep dreaming of snickerdoodles and sugar plums.
The next morning I awoke to this...the floor was covered all around the tree and on top of the tree skirt. I didn't replace the packages from the night before, so this is all new accumulation!

I got to looking at the poor tree and it was practically bald!

Its limbs were startling bare. Upon closer inspection, we determined it was not salvageable. And you have to have a Christmas tree three days before Christmas! So I had this small tree for decoration...
I dug out a strand of twenty lights...I didn't think this little tree could hold more than that!

Now we have a tree, Santa can come, presents can rest underneath, all is well with the world!

Penelope the Christmas pig quietly guards the presents! Just because I cannot do an entire post without a mention of wool, please note she has felted wool balls on her hat and scarf!

The Quilt Christmas

I am just throwing out a tease here....I have two more quilts to finish binding but these are all completed and wrapped and under the tree!!

Kindling Fireside Basket

I started out with this tired basket that used to hold a plant...well, it was tired and ugly. I almost threw it away!

But I remembered that I needed something to put kindling in for the wood stove, so I naturally spray painted it black and now it holds my sticks and twigs and pine cones and such for fire starting.

Don't hold the mess against me, this is a working wood stove! Wood stoves are never neat and clean....that is my story! And don't worry about this catching fire, it really never sits this close to the fire, except for photo sessions!

Felted Wool Christmas Wreath

I have been entertaining the idea of making a larger felted wool wreath like these little ornaments. I couldn't decide whether to make squares from the wool or some other shape. I had the bright idea to use a simple leaf shape and it worked! I made my leaf wreath in an hour or so, if you count how many of the little leaves I cut out from all different colors of wool.

The leaves area about four inches long and two inches wide.

I strung the leaves on a 16 gauge wire which isn't very flexible. First I tried a thinner wire, but it didn't hold the shape with the weight of the leaves.
Isn't it wonderful?

I attached two leaves and three red felted berries (wet felted) to the top and made a hanger from a strip of wool.

This is all it took!

I love the finished product!

Holiday Decor on a Dime!

Two cobalt ceramic pots stacked on each other, some greenery from a willing cedar tree out in the woods, a string of lights, some artificial greenery and some pine cones create this great arrangement next to my front door. It looks even better after dark!
A wild peacock inspired ribbon (from Hobby Lobby last year at 90% off) and some greenery with pine cones and cedar boughs takes care of the mailbox post!

These blue cedar berries really help too! Nature made and no gluing required!

This grapevine wreath with a swag on top of it is at the end of my driveway...

Plus, I took the time to make a swag for friends...I am going to give it to them this afternoon, with the smell of cedar on my hands!