I'm still here...with Christmas wreaths!

Yes, ladies, even chemo can't keep me away from the glue gun and all the Christmas balls I can get my hands on. So even with a bit of fatigue and nausea (British stiff upper lip and steely eyed glare goes here) I'm still decorating for Christmas with a plan and a schedule, starting with crashing my stash so I didn't have to spend more money and then making lots of wreaths.


My daughter, Insanely Creative Christy, made this gorgeous red yarn ball beauty for my counter top display area but we soon deemed it worthy of sale and moved it to our teeny tiny craft mall booth.

Where it joins a table top tree, my wooden spool yarn angels, Christy's creative clothespin sets (the ones on the shelf have chickadees and finches on them, so cute!) and her thread spool prim trees. Surrounding them all, my ruffled muslin garland. That's 8 feet of ruffly creamy goodness, so pretty!


Ahem, back to the wreaths. I made this red yarn ball beauty for the inside of our front door, reasoning that I wanted to see it more than I wanted the outside of the door to look good. I added satin covered balls, glass balls, beads and poinsettias before I said enough. Yeah, in wreaths I am no minimalist. I go for the gusto, baby!


This is the wreath I made to replace the craft booth wreath. Not quite as wonderful as Christy's wreath but full of color and texture and perfect for this empty spot at the end of my counter.




Which did not remain empty for long. Insanely Creative Christy decorated the tree on one of my exhausted days then I started filling in with everything red and shiny and Christmasy. Plus my painted branches got a bit of play after their duty for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I like that!


Whoa, look at all the STUFF! "Less is more" went out the window and "let's cram everything in there" became the operative phrase. So much fun, so much to see! What you can't see on the book page gourds (another Christy creation) are the glittery bronze stems, they look amazing with the book pages and the scalloped wood bowl. I made the paper mache Santa and snowman and put the googly eyes on the bottle cork. Seemed like a good idea at the time and now he makes me smile.

Dollar Store candy canes in a fluted glass and an apothecary jar full of red potpourri and I laughed when I figured out that the satin ball fit perfectly into the tarnished brass doorknob. It's serendipity.

This is the counter area I pass by dozens of times a day, and it lifts my spirits with it's exuberance. It's the first thing you see when you come in from the deck, and it is amazingly colorful and charming. And it didn't cost a bundle, just a few Dollar Store items and lots of "let's put this up there and see how it looks." Win, win and win.

Ah yes, another wreath. This one is for my Etsy shop. Not quite done at this point...Christy and I added a big gossamer butterfly and more beads and a few more balls. Gorgeous nonetheless and NOT just for Christmas. Girly girly bedroom, baby shower, breast cancer warrior gift, pink and silver Christmas.....this pink wreath has lots of decor potential!

And finally, a gold wreath this time. I hung it over the window and am still considering it. It suffers from "big bow syndrome." Perhaps I'll deconstruct the bow and string it in and out of the balls? Add more balls? Add more snowflakes? This wreath, it mocks me. I will do something more to it as soon as I decide what it needs.

The next project is 25' of lighted garland for the ceiling beam in our livingroom. The Welding Man and I will be tackling that today! He is also building me a storage rack for my studio which will let me organize some of my fabric. Did I mention how much he "loves" my spiral notebook full of lists? LOL

Ladies, tomorrow is my last round of "hard" chemo. They tell me the next rounds of taxol will be easier. Let us hope. In the meantime, I'll be making Christmas gifts for the fam and also giving you guys a nice post and tute on yarn angels. Soon. Very soon. Keep in touch, I love your comments!

Bless you.