Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

If I had known then...what looked to be a simple ornament for this year turned into something that I am pretty sure I would never do again...for oh so many reasons.

I am a member of several craft groups online and love one in particular. The crafter is obsessed with all things primitive-which, I must admit, I love as well. After seeing her tutorial for this snowman, something spoke to me and I decided that it would be my 2019 ornament. But, because most people I would be giving it to are not primitive aficionados, I needed to make mine crystal white "snowy". And then, me being me, I started to wonder what it would look like if it turned while on the tree. The back definitely wouldn't be very attractive. And so, I decided I would need to sew two together and then give them a light stuffing. Sounded simple enough...yeah, right!

I will not bore you with the details (well, maybe just a few since I did take the pictures) but, luckily, I was smart enough to make one prototype before I got too far into it. You would not believe how many little, silly things had to be done to these cuties before they finally came together.

And, as I was moving along, I decided that a lot of the embellishments I had purchased were not working-at least for my taste. Luckily, I still have a decent stash of stuff, so I was able to improvise. I started by gathering my goodies. You might be able to see in this picture that the snowman has holes for the eyes, nose, mouth and buttons. On the original, the crafter simply outlined those areas with a marker. Since I was going to stuff mine, I didn't want to do it that way. I was going to fill those spaces. I dug through my pompom box and was lucky enough to find the EXACT number of small, black pompoms. When pushed half way into the eye hole, they look like lumps of coal.

Then, out came the button box but no way I had 36 of the right size buttons in black...and, I was NOT leaving this house! I did happen to have many of the right size in white thanks to the many, many button down Polo shirts my husband wore (they always came with 4 extra buttons) over the years. And, I did have a can of matte black spray paint. I thought I was genius when I put down a length of masking tape sticky side up, positioned the buttons on it so they didn't move when the paint spray hit them and I was good to go. Lol Luckily, it did work out just as I hoped it would.

About here is when I thought I might try to stitch and stuff and see how it worked. I did have to glue in a piece of muslin to cover the holes on the back because they would not be getting the embellishments. I also gave it a coat of iridescent glitter. So far, so good.

I didn't have anything to cover the mouth hole, so a small piece of black fabric was now needed there.

I decided I wanted carrot noses cut from felt. I can not tell you how much felt I have left from G.S. days and Halloween costumes but, as hard as I searched, there was not one piece of orange...not a square inch! That was when I just started looking for anything orange...anywhere! To my surprise, I had bought a package of felt leaves at the DT and hadn't used them. The ironic part is they are made out of the same stiff felt as the snowmen, so several leaves were sacrificed for the sake of noses. Lol

The sewing and stuffing were tedious but I got through it and thought I was in the home stretch until...

...I turned them over and saw this. Not very attractive, so the back of the hats got painted black to cover the black thread.

And, while I was there, I decided to paint the eyes, mouth and buttons black and the nose orange.

I put some snow glitter on the hats and once that was dry, I was ready with my assembly line-slowest assembly line ever. It needed two different types of glue, the tying of very small square knots (thank you to my G.S. leader all those many years ago for teaching me how to tie my tie on my uniform), much snipping and bending of wire and leaves, etc. but I finally got there!

I must say, he really is larger than I would have wanted and, in my opinion, doesn't begin to portray the amount of time and effort he took to accomplish, but I am liking him better each time I look at him. Definitely not my favorite ornament of all time but, he is done and probably the only one I will get to this year as I have a lot of exciting changes in my life the next month or so, so it is what it is. I will share more of what my November and December are going to look like as soon as I know for sure. Stay tuned.

Gobble, Gobble

I finally have all of Halloween down and safely stashed away until next year. Now it is on to Thanksgiving. I must admit that I entertained not putting up Thanksgiving this year-for about ten seconds. And then, my sanity returned. As simple as it would have been to go straight to Christmas, I just couldn't do it. It is November and, to me, that means autumn and Thanksgiving.

And so, let the tour begin.

I have only added one new thing to this year's Thanksgiving decor-and it's not in this room-but, for whatever reason, I did do a lot of moving things around.

I am so happy to get to have these cuties out for a bit longer. I enjoyed making them and even though they don't look like something I would normally gravitate to, I like them. I painted them with chalk paint and that could be why. There is just something about the soft finish that it has that I am obsessed with.

Do you see those two green pillow beauties on the couch? They were one of my Pottery Barn purchases at their Friends and Family sale. They are velvet on both sides and the prettiest green ever. I don't really need any more pillows but I started thinking about how many months of the year I could have these green pillows out and I decided I just couldn't pass them up.

I love how these pumpkins look in the dough bowl and the eucalyptus definitely helps soften the lines.

So that is it for the living room. Tomorrow I am going to have a try at the snowmen ornaments that I have been seeing everywhere. I will be back to let you know how it goes. Stay tuned.

Another One Is In the Books

I just got home from nine days in St. Pete and what a wonderful time I had. I love to shop, eat out and decorate...so, when all of those things are combined in one, I am a very happy camper! My daughter is a decorator and had a number of client appointments while I was visiting so I tagged along. We went to designer showrooms that I have only dreamed of...more fabric, wallpaper, lighting, furniture, etc. than I have ever seen. I was in my glory. We hit Tampa and Hyde Park twice in the week. And, even though we were doing some business, we saved lots of time for pleasure as well.

Since Kris lives down there and has the opportunity to eat out often, she likes to try new places when I'm there...and the ones we picked did not disappoint. Plus, I got to visit a few of my faves-Pottery Barn, Ballard Design and Sur La Table-where I may have found a few treasures for myself. After all, when in Rome... Lol

Of course, the highlight of this trip is always Halloween in the Old Northeast Historic District where Kris lives. It is truly a scene out of a movie as the area comes to life! We took a walk earlier in the day to get a few pictures of other blocks as once the kiddos start arriving, we are pretty much on her block. We did run out of over 1000 pieces of candy a bit earlier than usual so we walked to a few parties and a haunted house. The Old Northeast never disappoints on Halloween!

My grand daughter bought Jasper a new costume this year and he left it all on all evening (there was a larger serape going down his back not visible here) except the sombrero although I will say he tolerated it longer than I thought he would.

Although we did not get to see this one at night, we did see a video someone posted and the space ships light up and lift off the ground...it was really a sight to behold!

I have been hustling to get down the Halloween that was waiting for my return and get my Thanksgiving out. I am making strides but probably still have another two days to get myself all caught up. After that, I will be posting again and showing you some of the crafts I am going to try to fit in before the holidays. I love this time of the year.

Oh yes, I almost forgot the initial reason we all headed down-my grandson had a game in Clearwater on Friday night. My son-in-law and youngest grandson didn't come because they had an early game in Ocala the next day and three other grand daughters were tied up with school or work but those of us that did make it enjoyed spending the weekend together. Daughter #3 is taking the picture for us.

I am off to put away the stacks of Halloween decor sitting all over my house. Wish me luck and stay tuned.