allsorts

...and a very hacky New Year

Sunday I felt the first hints of a cold coming on and Monday morning it hit me full force. Katy and Ro got hit as well, but not quite as badly, and Jeff was totally spared. So, not much celebrating will happen here in the land of tissues. But I do want to wish everyone a healthy, happy and safe 2009! And to thank you all for stopping by the blog and saying such nice things this year. Y'all are truly the best!

Cheers,  (cough sniffle sneeze moan)

Jenny

Merry Christmas!

Er.. well... Happy Boxing Day! I blinked and it was done! Here are few snaps from the day...

Jeff (note his toes on the right) set up an awesome layout of the Brio train set on the coffee table. This is the view after a few train wrecks. Wood train, wood houses, little wood ornaments match the little wood figures in the vintage windmill. Love it!

The new smaller, lighter tree finally snug in the corner of the living room. Note new wood floors!!! The guys finished on Christmas Eve. Not kidding.

Snowmen on the mantle again... the tall guy in the middle is new. Some of the others felt a bit of snowman envy... and required elevating.

Ah, the annual Italian feast! I made crostini again, and we added a new dish... balsamic glazed onions. Big yum!

I didn't take any pics of the whole table but I think someone did at one point. We built a new long table top out of birch plywood that fit on top of our two smaller tables so we could seat everyone at one table for the first time in ages. It was fantastic. I bought five yards of red fabric and three table runners at Ikea. Easy peasy. As you see, I got a little crafty with the candles...

Vintage Santa was kind of a theme. I found these crackers that fit right in.

Now for the fun stuff! This is my prezzie from Ro... a pine Welsh dresser! I know it is really old school, but it is something I've always wanted. I filled it with lots of red and white... and more Santas!

WIth his sister's blessing I gave Ro the antique scale that was his grandfather's. It is perfect for measuring out the exact amount of candy for Tatum...

I swear, no one is supposed to have that much fun all in one day. It was great, and I was able to enjoy every minute, even though it was the four month anniversary of my mom's passing. And being surrounded by the most awesome and supportive family in the world was the best present of all.

Hope yours was a wonderful, happy and beautiful day.

Cheers,

Jenny

More Christmas frivolity

Well, compared to most people I get an early start, but I'm slow to finish in the decorating department. The tree in the den is finally up and decorated after a false start: I set up a new pre-lit beauty I bought a couple of weeks ago, but after seeing it looming in the corner, had to ultimately accept that it was just too big for the room (thank heavens we hadn't gotten around to decorating it). We shifted it to the dining room (temporarily - I'll get back to that in a moment) and hauled this one back down from the attic. Bless its little heart, it is so old... it was my in-laws' when they lived in this house! But I love that it has a vintagey vibe going on... the needles are soft and papery, and go well with the humble homemade paper and felt decorations. Yes, we had to go through the usual three tries to get the lights strung evenly, but it warms my heart to see it bravely facing yet another Holiday at the Harrises. Can you tell how much I love this guy?

I think the little star dangles are my favorite part of the decorations. I posted a pdf of them as a freebie last year, but somehow forgot to add them to my sidebar with the other patterns and tutorials. Look down there to the left, or just click here to go to the original post. They're a fun addition to a family tree, providing built-in entertainment as people hunt for intentionally (or unintentionally) spelled out words dangling among the branches. I also love the pipe cleaner candy canes I made... would anyone be interested in a tutorial on those? I don't know if there are already a zillion of those out there, but I'd be happy to do one if there is a need.

Oh, back the the story of the other tree. The small (large) kink in Christmas decorating this year is that we are having new hardwood flooring installed in the living room on Tuesday! Are we insane or what? So once that's finished, the tree will slide into the living room and finally be decorated. In the meantime the dining room is still a mess and nothing can settle down until those long-awaited blankety-blank floors are down.

Oh, and I'm so incredibly thrilled with the response to the Pretty Maids and the Elfies patterns. I created a Loopsies flickr group for you to share your creations, either elfies or maids, or anything from other patterns that might come along in the future... Join here!

And you will love this... look at Elizabeth's "jenny b tree" ...

Cheers!

Jenny

Tada! Pretty maids ~ all in a row

Once upon a time I created this set of embroidery patterns based on traditional European folk costumes, with the idea of offering them in my etsy shop. Well... life got in the way before I could list them, and the plan got sidetracked. Let's see if we can do something about that, okay? For a limited time, the pretty maids will be available in the shop for your embroidering pleasure. They're delivered in the form of a printable PDF booklet which I will email you after purchase. You can purchase them individually or the full set of five designs. Click here to visit the Loopsies shop.

This collection includes Griet, a Dutch doll, Leonie from Bavaria, Nadya from Russia, Aniela from Poland and Cerise from France:

I am so in love with the idea of "international" dolls, and have plans to create lots more sets. I would love to hear any suggestions for countries you would like to see in future collections!

Cheers,

Jenny