Christmas

I was at Walmart yesterday and they already have live Christmas trees there.   I pity anyone who buys one of those.  There is no way it will hold its needles until Christmas!

Anyhow, when I saw it, my negative feelings about Christmas all came rushing to the surface.  I have to confess that I really don’t like Christmas. All the shopping,  buying gifts for people who already have everything they need, all the parties, food, etc.

Every year I get all stressed out over Christmas.  I don’t even have very many gifts to buy, just the grandchildren and our children and spouses. But even with only a few gifts it still stresses me out.  I am not a shopper.  I am great when it comes to finding an old chair to fix up at a garage sale or thrift shop, but that kind of gift doesn’t go very too well with 2, 4 & 7 year old boys, or 2& 9 year old girls.

But yesterday seeing those trees at Walmart I had a brilliant idea.  Every time I see Christmas stuff, ads on TV, decorations in the store, Christmas music at the gas station, I am going to thank  The Lord for sending Jesus and remember what a gift that is.

The greatest gift…JESUS

I am not going to let the “Christmas spirit”, you know, the one that says we need to create the perfect Christmas experience for our families,  I’m not going to let that get to me.

Instead I am going to think about Jesus and what he did for us by coming to this world and thank God for it.  And when I hear “It’s a Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives for the umpteenth time,  I am going to remind myself that is is a HOLY JOYFUL CHRISTMAS.  I am going to get out my Compassion International and World Vision catalogue and give something that is needed.

I am still going to decorate our house because I do that all year anyway, but  it will be simpler and I am going to take my time doing it. I may invite a friend or two in for tea but no big parties.

I am laying aside all the expectations.  I love  Thanksgiving and so we will celebrate Thanksgiving all the way through the “holiday season”.  Thanksgiving for the gift of Jesus.

Rhondi xo

Preparing For Winter

 I began to preparing for winter yesterday.  Preparing for winter for many people involves stocking up on firewood, canning and freezing food from the garden.  My preparations are much less strenuous. I bring the ferns that are on our front porch, inside.

 Our sunroom gets a lot of light especially in the winter, so that’s where I put them.  Two go in front of the windows.

One hangs above my wicker desk.

 The other one goes in the corner where my wicker chaise lounge is.

Here is a view from the kitchen, with my messy desk in the way.

I did one more thing in preparing for winter.  I bought some pansies to put in some planters on the back deck!

So as you can see I have been VERY busy preparing for winter.  The water in the birdbath was frozen this morning so I got all my winter chores done just in time 

In my previous post  I was telling you how I have too many projects on the go.   One of them was to paint the top of this table which I use as a desk. I used Annie Sloan Louis Blue, a color I have  been using  quite a lot lately.  I gave it one coat of wax and so far it seems to be holding up well with the amount of use it gets.

Another project is painting and recovering the seats of a set of chairs I got at a yard sale.  There is a tablecloth sitting on this one which I am considering using to cover 2 of the chair seats, but I’m not sure yet. Did I tell you about these chairs already?  I don’t think so, but I’ll wait to tell you about the great deal I got on them when I get them finished.

One last thing.  I got this decal at The Dollar Tree.  Isn’t it great?  It fit perfectly in the panel on our fake fireplace mantle in the living room.  I liked it so much that I bought a bunch to give to friends.

This post was a little rambling wasn’t it? A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Are you preparing for winter?  What have you done so far?

I’t a chilly day, just the kind of day that is perfect for a hot cup of something.  I am going to make a nice pot of tea.  Care to join me?

Rhondi x0

Too Many Things

Do you ever have too many projects on the go at one time?  I do!

Awhile ago I decided to paint our front hall, living room and  dining room white.I planned to stencil the upper half of the walls in the front hall and paint the upper half of the dining room walls a pale blue.

I painted the hall, living room and the bottom half of the dining room.  Then I stenciled the upper half of the hall walls and painted a couple of a sample colors over the yellow on the dining room walls.  I couldn’t decide what color blue looked best, so I just left it with for a couple of weeks with patches of blue here and there.   I rearranged some furniture and hung a few things on the walls but it just wasn’t coming together.

So I just left it and I started on 2 quilts, one for my sister in law and one just for fun to cuddle under on a cold winter day.

Then I found some matelasse spreads  to make slips for my wing chairs,

So the  quilts got put on hold.  Here are the spreads just thrown over the chairs.

Then I found some matelasse spreads  to make slips for my wing chairs,

So the  quilts got put on hold.  Here are the spreads just thrown over the chairs.

Remember how I  made these and even though they looked great the brown wasn’t making me happy.  I posted about it HERE

I am pleased with how they turned out.I didn’t feel too bad about recovering them again when I was able to get those spreads for only $20.

I LOVE matelasse on chairs because it is durable and you can just throw it on the washer and dryer and even bleach it if you need to.  I made one at least 13 years ago for our sofa.  It has been washed so many times and is still holding up well.

Finally I decided that I really like the yellow so I painted over the sample patches of blue and kept the dining room yellow.

As with most of the projects I have on the go right now, this post is unfinished too because I have to go and do something else

to be continued…

Rhondi xo

I am pleased with how they turned out.

We Will Make Art

We will make art. I am reading a wonderful book A Million Little Ways by Emily Freeman. Here are a couple of quotes from her book:

“You stare at your living room and imagine ways to make it better and then you do and it changes your mood. It should be silly, except somehow it isn’t.”

“I don’t believe there is one great thing I was made to do in this world.  I believe there is one great God I was made to glorify.  And there will be many ways,  maybe even a million little ways, I willed declare his glory with my life.”

It’s not just painters or writers or musicians who are artists.

Anyone who has an idea in their head and presents it in such a way that people can be inspired, encouraged, comforted, etc  is an artist.

I like to make quilts.  The fun for me is choosing the colors and putting them together in an interesting way.  I’m never sure how it will turn out until I’m done.

When people look at my quilts it makes them feel happy because they are colorful.

When people sleep under my quilts or wrap them around themselves while watching TV it makes them feel warm and cared for.

I have made quilts from shirts for a friend whose husband died and a quilt quilted with Psalm 91 for a friend who was battling cancer, which brought comfort and love. ”

 In her book she says, “What if you began to see your art as something other than your idea?  What if it was less lofty and more necessary to your daily rhythm?  What if your art is part of a bigger picture, part of a daily grace God has in mind for someone else?”  So when I am thinking about the colors and how to put them together it is so much more than just some talent I have.  I am  doing something God has called me to do.”

So, “we will make art”

I am going to make something with fabric, some type of quilt.  The first thing to do is decide what colors to use.

Decided to use blue (what a surprise)

It always gets quite messy.

I was thinking of using some pink to, but finally settled on this simple block with 16 2″ squares.

More messiness. My sewing room has a bed in the middle of it!

I start to arrange them in a pattern.  I don’t know what it is going to be yet, a quilt for a bed, for a tablecloth, to throw over the back of a couch.  For right now my job is just to arrange the pieces and wait to see how it turns out.

This is the art I am making right now.  Here is one more quote from the book:

“The world needs you awake and alive.  Does the world need another book? Song? Painted living room? Not necessarily, but the world does need you to come alive right where you are and not where you wish you were.  If writing books, or songs, or painting  living rooms is what makes you come alive, then that’s what you’ll need to do.”

What makes you come alive?  Are you doing it?

Rhondi xo

I am linking with Emily’s blog Chatting At The Sky today.