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Last month, brilliant Monique shared another of her beautiful creations, a decorated Ikea lantern scene, and I was so charmed by it, I was soon emailing her to tell her I was copying the idea for my parents for Christmas. ♥ I found the same lantern online, began ordering tree, lights, and blue gingham dollhouse furniture for it, and then was flummoxed when the lantern arrived in pieces-needing-to-be-assembled and emailed Monique again to ask how she'd put hers together, sigh. :) Eventually, I got it together--the story of my life, ha ha--and I finished it the day before taking it home for an early Christmas with my family. :) It's such a sweet idea, and it's not one I'd have ever thought of, filling the inside of a lantern like this. More thanks to Monique for sharing, as she always does. ♥
I began mine with what became the living room carpet, :) an old hand-towel in Mom and Dad's shade of gray-blue. A small snowflake doily-ornament came off my tree to become a miniature tree skirt. After I'd gotten the decorating done, Mike figured out the lights.
A heart appeared while we worked on it. ♥
I had bought a miniature Beagle for Dad, as he's aching to have another one but Mom's not keen on the idea. I crafted a mini newspaper out of folded-up/glued-together newspaper snippets and made a mini country decorating magazine for Mom. I'm not happy with the collar-and-red-heart-tag that ended up looking like a bandana--Dad would never have a bandana-wearing dog--but I'd already hot-glued it into place before I realized how oversized it was.
Part of a stained blue holiday towel that we no longer used but that I hadn't wanted to throw out found a new life as an afghan for the back of the couch. I unraveled more of its yarn loops to make tiny ornaments, and I made a few little wrapped gift-bundles for under the tree.
A snowflake-patterned scrap of the same towel became a pillow, although the snowflake design isn't obvious. The basket and shiny bow-wrapped gift beside it were little bits I'd saved from other projects over the years--and I'm glad I did. :)
I ordered a miniature Swedish tea ring from an online artisan, since that's what Mom always bakes for Christmas morning's breakfast. ♥ I cut out paper napkins to go with that and the tea cups.
The tree has its own built-in string of lights, and I draped the other strand around the couch for a little more glow on that side of the "room."
When it was all put together and lit up, it looked full enough--and very much like Mom and Dad's actual living room at Christmas, which is what I was going for, of course. ♥ (Again, how fun is this idea! I want to make them for baby showers and birthdays and garden parties and weddings and kids' rooms and other holidays and! and! and. . . !) :)
I took a final picture in full sunshine right before wrapping it--
--and Mike and I gave it to Mom and Dad on the 21st. Mom was as delighted as expected, and Dad was just happy to see a Beagle in his living room finally. ;) Here's to the fun and love of Christmas, and here's to the sharing of sweet ideas. ♥
Julietta's first Christmastime. Darling girl. ♥ While family eats and watches a Christmas movie together back home, Mike, Stuffed, and I are cozy in our little apartment, our cards all taped to the door, our favorite movies playing one after the other, and Stuffed napping here, there, and everywhere around us. 'A strangely foggy Christmas Eve here too, so much so that we can hardly see our neighbors' apartment next door, and the fog after a day with temperatures in the forties and our windows open most of the day while holiday baking was in full-swing. My favorite day of the year, this. ♥
It's been an easy-peasy day here, and this entire season's been the most-organized of every holiday season so far for me. We have been washing dishes as we go all day, so we're even caught up in the kitchen, and unlike every past year, I have the cinnamon rolls baked and waiting to be frosted and it's earlier than midnight! ;)
Yay for progress!
Mom reminded me this past weekend that Mike and I did Sloppy Joes for Christmas Eve a few years back, and yes, that sounded good this time too, so after baking sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls today, supper was an easy affair. Mom, of course, with big meals for more than ten both tonight and tomorrow, has been much busier, and it's been sweet to be able to cheer each other on today.
Happy holidays to you all. Tonight and all the days ahead, may you find sweetness, love, and wonder.
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And as with her gift last year, I could not be more charmed. She handed it to me Saturday night covered in crushed and crumpled wrapping paper, and my brother explained, "She's had this made and wrapped since ohhhhhhhh, October maybe!?" :) Sweet Bee. ♥ I will treasure her and her artwork all my days.
'Off to Mom and Dad's soon for Early Christmas. ♥ Above is Bianca experiencing New York City for the first time this past week, photo from my brother. This shot just captures all the wonder for me.
'Wisdom below from dear Marie's blog. ♥ And with it, my warmest wishes to you all. See you in a few.
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The bus I took home from work late last night was decorated to the hilt for the holidays. The fare-box was wrapped like a brick fireplace, there were wrapped packages and other decorations secured to the storage spaces in front of the driver and behind the driver, the windows were coated in spray snow, and sparkling tinsel garlands and ball ornaments were hanging the entire length of the bus. O' that I could have asked the driver to stop the bus just for more picture-taking! In almost thirteen years of using public transportation here, this was the single most charming trip I've yet had. I told the driver her bus was wonderful, and she just laughed, so I don't know that this was her doing. I assume she has a more whimsical coworker. :) As with the kites in Ocean City this summer, I love seeing that there are people out there who do things like this just to bring some joy to the lives of complete strangers. Bless all the magic-making elves!
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Stuffed has a perfectly-shaped cat head on his back. ♥ This adds to the wonders that are Stuffed's "design," which include that he also sports a heart on his front leg,
a black-white-black-white-black stripe design from head to tail,
and angel wings under the cat head.
The cat head shape is more obvious now that he's lost weight with age, I see. It was there before but wrapped around his sides some. Dear sweet old Stuffed. If I lived to be 300, I could never love another animal more. 'Sweet and artistically-made little soul. ♥
Mom's youngest sister texted me this summer to let me know that my parents had arrived safely in New York for a family reunion, but also that Mom wanted me to know she and Dad now had a cell phone--"just for emergencies"--so not to worry as much about their drive home a few days later. My parents had never had a cell phone. My parents have never tried an answering machine. My parents have never used computers. Before I could even think of a response, my phone pinged with another text from my aunt. "Your dad says you're probably shocked." Ha! Yesssssss. :)
As predicted, though, it really was "just for emergencies," and since there--thankfully--wasn't one on their trip back, Mom and Dad still hadn't done more with their phone even by the end of October than charge it every few days. When I came home at Halloween, though, I decided to change that--because if they weren't comfortable using it, they wouldn't remember how to do anything with it even during--and especially during--an actual emergency. While Dad watched a ball game, Mom and I snuggled under a blanket on the couch with both our phones and I taught her how to text me. Ping! as her first message came through to me, misspelled due to her tremors. What she had been trying to write, I don't remember, but it came through as "Yippee did!" I wrote back as we laughed, and although she was sitting beside me watching me write back to her, she still cried out, "OOH! Neat!" when she heard her phone chime with her new text from me. :) After we'd written back and forth a few times, giggling all the way, and with stubbornly uninterested Dad shaking his head in the background--although I haven't given up on him yet, oh no, never--I texted my younger brother and asked him to text Mom. He not only wrote her, but also passed along new baby pictures, and that was all it took. :) Mom was hooked. Mom had texted him, her youngest sister, and her oldest brother by the time she went to bed that night, she texted me the above picture of her and Aunt Laurie with sweet Vickie soon after, and a few days after I'd returned here, she texted to tell me that she had called Aunt Laurie to talk her into getting a cell phone so that we could all keep in touch that way. :) ♥ Soon enough, then, Aunt Laurie was sending me a Thanksgiving morning greeting, and I was sharing pictures with her of my newly-redone wall and curtains here. Aunt Laurie texted back with a photo of her sweet green kitchen.
A week ago, she followed up with a photo of her Christmas tree. ♥
Mom followed suit and sent us both photos of her own tree. ♥
And now we're all in regular contact this way, texting almost every day. I think you know how sweet this is for all of us, and how proud I am of my mom. Aunt Laurie had emailed before and has had a digital camera for years, so it wasn't quite the leap for her as it was for Mom. To know that they can keep in touch this way with each other, with Vickie, with me, with their grandchildren, etc. is all just so GREAT. :) It is truly never too late to learn. As I pointed out to Mom while she was learning, I was still learning to drive in my late thirties, so I would never be the one to mock someone for trying to learn, let alone struggling to learn, something. I love watching people learn something, I love the moment when it "clicks"--when Mom opened her phone to see that just-taken picture of her two youngest nieces and suddenly "got" it and wanted more, more, more--and I find it sweet and inspiring to know that the morning of October 30th, Mom had no interest in this or ability to do this, and a few days later, she was--in her own self-deprecating--words "a texting marvel." :) And with that, I will sign off and wait for Mom's next message. ♥
Mike washed the bedding with his laundry Sunday night and surprised me by replacing our everyday pillowcases with our Christmas ones a couple weeks early. I usually wait until Christmas Eve to put them on, but seeing these in bed has been surprisingly sweet this week. I'll add the sheets one of these days. Yes, why not enjoy them all month. ♥ I've mentioned before my dream of setting up my dining room--I don't HAVE a dining room, so this is very much a dream, you see--with an assortment of mismatched tables and chairs for holiday family dinners. . .a kids table with seasonal decorations and activities to keep little ones busy, a table for two in a window, a round table with overstuffed armchairs around it, etc., and I've always had the same dream of hosting family overnight around holidays. 'Different bedding in every room,
seasonal pillowcases and sheets no matter the season,
extra touches of throw pillows and stuffed toys that add a little fun and whimsy to guests' quarters,
no matter the occasion or holiday--
--no matter the guests' ages, since we're never too old for sweetness and silliness, and methinks we need those things as we get older at least as much as we did when we were kids, if not even more-so--
and that make them stop and think, "Ah! That's right! It's [Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Beach Week, Valentine's Day, whatever]!"
And just to make them feel special. ♥ That's no small thing.
We have no extra bedroom here, nor even a couch, so this remains a "someday" dream, but I so enjoy daydreaming about these sweet little spaces I have yet to own. Mom and Dad's guest room at Christmas would sport its share of red gingham, I'm sure, and likely some pillows of their children and grandchildren made from old Christmas photos. 'Their own tiny Christmas tree beside the bed. (Mike laughs because Mom still does this for me every Christmas when I come home. ♥) Wherever all the kids would camp out, in beds and sleeping bags and chairs pushed together, a stocking filled with little treats would greet each of them in their spot in the morning. . . .Star pillows and star-patterned sheets for New Year's Eve sleepovers, gardening and bird-watching magazines fanned out on Aunt Laurie and Uncle Warren's bed during a springtime visit. . . .For various reasons, these visits and gatherings are unlikely to happen, but a dream is a precious thing, so I dream on and enjoy each one--and thank Mr. Mike for the taste of it we get here in reality in our own little apartment with each other. ♥
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