the halls are decked

this week we finished decorating the house, adding all the little things that make the house look like a Christmas wonderland (my daughter's phrase)

the coffee table has vintage candles including one that was my grandmother's and one that my mother painted a poinsettia on

the stair rail had just enough openings between the spindles for the collection of jumpers (that hadn't seen the light of day for a long time!)

the table just inside the door holds a basket made by Amma and a metal mailbox that I've had for years

and the mantle has the collection of rocking horses

this last phase of the Christmas decorating holds the sweetest memories as it involves unwrapping the carefully wrapped and protected pieces that have no value to anyone else, but are priceless to us

the little feather has the really small ornaments -- including a Santa that the DH made as a child

and the Christmas village - most of these pieces were my grandmother's and I remember them clearly from when I was a child

not everything this week was fun, however

on Monday, after I had been doing laundry most of the day, I went into the utility room in the basement and found water on the floor under the water heater

ACK!

the picture of the floor shows part of how big the puddle of rusty water under the old water heater was

and here is the picture of the shiny new model that my plumber installed for me -- in about 3 hours from the "let's take a look" at my front door shortly after I sent him a message about the water on the floor to when his truck was pulling out of the drive way when the work was all finished

while this was not an expense I was planning for just before Christmas, it was about a third of the cost of the water heater I had to replace in our old house a few years ago, and the work was done a lot faster

I'm very grateful that we have good contacts here to have work done by good people

guess I need to put a big bow there on the water heater -- Merry Christmas to the house!

 

this time of year the studio work includes a lot of utilitarian activities

some of what happened in there this week I can't show you yet (watch for the Christmas Reveal post after Christmas!)

but these three items are all done

a pair of mittens hand knit that will go along with the toy we bought for the child who's tag we pulled from the local giving tree -- in this climate, every child needs a pair of warm mittens at Christmas!

the Christmas sock (which I made over 30 years ago!) now has been embroidered with the name of my daughter's newest dog -- old meets new!

and Mr Cute has recently had a growth spurt that has made most of his stash of "made by gramma" favorite flannel pj pants too small -- fortunately, I can whip up a pair of these in less than an hour from cut out to complete -- he liked this pair

there has been work on art projects this week too

I'm working my way to the back of the neck on this piece now -- the graduation to the darker color that will continue around to the clasp went well, so now it's all seed bead fill to the back -- not nearly as interesting to work on for me as the part where I was adding other pieces, but necessary

the leather I need to back this has been ordered -- this will be another one that will have a soft gray backing -- that color just seems to work for most of my pieces

I'm trying to decide if it would be a good investment to buy a whole hide -- but that would be a pretty pricey thing -- maybe after I pay off the bill for the water heater!

the background for the truck is done -- I think

now that I can see the background with the drawing of the truck I'm wondering if I actually want the background to be wider

I need to think about that

meantime, the silk organza that I need for this piece has also been ordered

and I can start working on the barn and the trees while I'm trying to decide about how wide this should be

then there is this

a little over a year ago I was in the thick of this activity getting ready for our move

this stack is not mine, but my daughter (bless her!) and I packed 23 boxes of books for my mother yesterday

like with labor pains, where you forget how bad it hurts when you have that child in your arms, I'd forgotten how much I hurt this time last year as I was trying to get us moved now that we are in our new house

I won't be doing a lot today -- I need to let my shoulders and my back recover

it's time to wrap presents!