Christmas Stockings

One of the first Blaglandians I met when I set out to discover what the world of Blogging is all about was Dawn of The Feathered Nest. Right from the very beginning she established herself in my rooting section. Always there to lend a helping hand or explain the ropes. In fact she, Laurie and Christina invited their readers to come by and introduce themselves. :c)

For me one of the many reasons I love being a part of Bloglandia is the the sharing, exchanging ideas, inspiration and encouragement we all freely give each other. It's so much fun to be among people where eccentric is normal. Where you aren't the only one who can't go anywhere without coming home with your pockets stuffed full of discarded "treasures" :c) Who have "now what can I do with this" tattooed on the inside of their eyelids. When asked "What in the world are you going to do with that?" know the only true answer is "I don't know, but I'm sure I'll think of something" ;c)

Oh yeah so what does this have to do with Christmas Stockings?? Well my Bloglandian sister Dawn asked if I could post a few more pictures of the stockings I made. Oh Dawn I would be more then happy to do that. In fact I am touched and honored that you might find a little glimmer of inspiration from them. That and it seems only right since I have used your art work for inspiration purposes!! :c). Here's my little faerie in a jar.

Gads there are sooooo many wonderful artists with such amazing creations to use for inspiration that there is no way you could run out of "Oh I can't wait to try"!!

So here Missy Dawn are the pictures. I drew the boot out on brown paper for the pattern. I do know that if I ever do them again I'll make the foot part of the boot a bit wider to support the long curved toe. With these I stuff fiber fill in the toes to keep them from falling over. Although I suspect if I removed the rather heavy ornament from the toe, they would have a better chance of pointing up :c) But dang it the ornaments are just too cute!!

I hope this helped. Dawn if you or anyone else uses the stockings as a point of inspiration please come back and share pictures of your creations!! So another day has come and gone which places up one day closer to Christmas... yikes!!! Have a wonderful day or evening depending on what part of the world you are in :c)

The Stockings Were Hung...

When I am in need of a good swift kick to get moving. When nothing else seems to be a motivating factor. I invite friends over for dinner :c) The whole getting the tree decorated the patio into a bit of Christmas magic had been dragging on far to long. It isn't like I was doing nothing. It's not as if I was sneaking peeks at Where Women Create!! First I had to stop to make a Birthday card for Dulce (our little cleaning gal remember) Martha calls and suggests we go to lunch today cuz that's the only time all week she has. Let's see there was the Nut Cracker, Jazz and Brunch at Te Amo Lucy's and of course just the every day boring chores :c)

Yesterday we invited Luci and Tony over for dinner tonight. We were going to have a little preChristmas celebration. I thawed the rib roast we froze in lew ( I don't think that's the right spelling??) of chicken soup for Thanksgiving. Luci brought over some beautiful shrimp she had at the restaurant. Te Amo Lucy's is open 6 days a week so that tends to put a slight crimp in Luci and Tony's social life. The restaurant is closed on Mondays. You tell me the last time you went to a social event much less a Holiday social event on a Monday. Yep Monday isn't one of the hot picks of the week.

So I guess if we were going to have a little Holiday dinner that would mean the Patio needed to be a bit festive. All other activities had to be suspended today in order to have the patio ready for dinner. And guess what it worked:c) I can now say we officially have "decked the halls & the stockings were hung" Here are a few pictures.

It really is hard to see the two different colors of gold and burnished bronze in either the daylight or evening pictures. And if you look very carefully maybe you can see the roses we laid on the branches. They were a coral color that I misted with gold spray paint. Years ago I saw one of Victoria Magazine's Christmas trees that they had decorated with roses. Since then I have always wanted to do that so this year I did. But since my inheritance and I were separated at birth I went with inexpensive silk dollar store roses instead of the real ones. Once we are reunited I will for sure use real roses ;c)

Since there are no hearths to hang our stockings on I hung LW and mine on the old rusty metal door that at one time was someones front or maybe back door.

All the bears gave their stamp of approval on the look of this year's tree and even agreed to lower their standards to sit on the old peeling white bench :c) It's not so much the peeling paint that they object to as much as I pulled it out of the neighbor's trash one morning ;c)

I tied a bit of black gauzy material on the backs of the chairs and stuck a couple of roses in the knots. Hopefully the chairs don't scream I'm a bright orange and white patio chair quite as loudly.

Now that this project can be crossed off my to do list, I better get up tomorrow and focus on the next gift on the list. Have a wonderful Day or evening my Bloglandian friends depending on what part of the world you are in :c)

Where the Heck Did the Day Go??

I really don't know the answer. But what I do know is that it's gone. I even got up early today just so I'd have the tree and decorations up. I guess you figured out that I didn't quite get there :c)

LW got the tree out of the box and put it together. I managed to start to fluff the bottom branches. Boy oh boy I had forgotten just how spindly the poor thing was. No matter I have tons of ribbon I can use to fill in the gaps :c)

I also got both a large wreath and a small wreath made. Boy I was doing soooooo good!! I hadn't even let myself get sucked into bloglandia. Then it happened. LW stopped and checked our postal box at the postal couriers while he was running errands. When he came home he had the long awaited November/December issue of Somerset Studio and I Can't believe it's Finally Here... the premiere issue of Somerset's "Where Women Create" !!!!!!!! :c). Well as you know I'm not the kind of person with enough discipline to put them up and not sneak a peak until my work is done :c( Heck no I start out fine, then I start catching myself looking over at them, which progresses to passing by and quickly glancing at a page or two, to okay I'll take a minute to thumb through it but I won't stop to read any.........OH GOOD GRIEF is it 9;30 already?????

Soooo did I tell you I got 2 wreaths made and the bottom branches of the tree fluffed?? :c)

I promise to be much more productive tomorrow! Have a wonderful day or evening Bloglandian friends depending on what part of the world you are in :c)

A Decision Made and Tomorrow is the Day

Remember a while back I mentioned in passing that we were considering putting the tree out on the patio this year? Can't remember? No matter, cuz we (okay me) decided that is just the perfect place for the tree this year. For one thing it makes very good sense. With 5 dogs and 2 being pups who have never seen Christmas the tree on the porch allows for much better policing :c)

I'll try to give you a little insight to the logistics of decorating for Christmas like ya do up north (or anywhere Victoria reached) You know the traditional European decorating.

Let's start with the tree. We have an artificial tree as most people who put up trees do. Whether Mexican or foreign. Oh we get real trees we even have a couple of tree lots and of course the big box stores sell cut trees. Now I'm not really sure when these trees were cut to make the long journey here in time for Christmas. But it wouldn't surprise me if it was January 1st 2008 :c) No kidding. You can smell the wonderful pine fragrance when you bury your nose in the boughs. However to do that means you must come in contact with said boughs which means the needles will cascade off the branches. In fact any kind of movement within ten feet of the tree is guaranteed to cause a mass migration of needles to the floor. The trees are really not a beautiful pine color green either. More of a brown leaning towards green :c( Those trees that do make it home to become the magnificent Christmas tree have left a trail of needles in their wake. By Christmas day no one turns the tree lights on nor do they light a match anywhere closer then 100 feet. Spontaneous combustion comes to mind. Man it's a good thing we live in brick, cement and tile houses is all I have to say!!!

Tree ornaments. I have yet to find (here in Mazatlan) glass ornaments. I'm sure they must have them maybe in Mexico City or the much bigger cities. Our ornaments are plastic. But all is not lost because these ornaments are amazingly realistic. No kidding you really can't tell until you hold it in your hand or when it falls on the tile floor and doesn't break! :c) I'm sure there are plenty of reasons why glass isn't used. But for me the constant threat of broken glass is reason enough.

Supply and demand. Remember that all the "traditional" Christmas decorations stem from Western Europe. Soooo most of those decorations are imports. They are rather expensive and in limited supply. The stores will put their entire supply out on the shelves starting in early Oct. Therefore by the middle of November the shelves look like they have suffered a locus attack!! You know that phrase When it's gone it's gone or He who hesitates waits until next year :c)

What I have discovered from our friends and neighbors is that Mexico like most other Christian cultures has their own unique decorating and celebrating traditions. But like the other cultures it has incorporated different cultural traditions fit them in with their own to enjoy the celebration of Christmas.

Oh Yeah "Tomorrow is the Day" That's what I told LW. Time to unpack the tree and get to Decking the Halls & Patio. I'm signing off so I can check to be sure the camera battery is charged, and ready to go for tomorrow. I was a bit envious of Dawn from The Feathered Nest because she posted pictures of her tree beautifully decorated all in whites (It's always been a little dream of mine) Have a look here. Mexico loves color and shiny (translate bling) is even better. White is a non color no one uses white to celebrate unless it's a wedding. So a white tree is OUT No worries I'll post pictures of our bronze and gold decorated tree :c)

Have a wonderful day or evening my Bloglandian friends depending on where in the world you are. :c)

New Year Resolution

Oh I know we haven't even gotten through Christmas yet and here I am with New Year Resolution. Well I have decided one resolution is to explore new blogs especially those of Bloglandians with different passions then mine. I'm really looking forward to meeting tons of new people from all over the world and creating a few new friendships a long the way.

Now I'm thinking this could be a mighty large bill to fill without a bit of help. No problem I've decided to participate in this year's "One World- One Heart :c) It starts on Jan. 19th so we have plenty of time to decide about our Give Away.Did any of you participate last year?? It looks like great fun and what a wonderful way to get to know this funny little phenomena of Bloglandia :c) Hey how about we all go play together?? Go HERE and Lisa Swilka will explain it all to you. She greated this adventure two years ago. There isn't a button for this year yet but here is last year.

Any way I thought you might like to know and I sure hope a few of ya guys will play along with me.

Gads I'm not sure I could be any more boring then I feel right now ;c( I think this condition calls for snuggling next to LW and reading a bit a Somerset Life that arrived yesterday from eBay :c)

Have a wonderful day or evening Bloglandian friends depending on what part of the world you are in :c)

Two Post One Night... Shocking!!

This is way to good of news to keep until tomorrow!! My new bloglandian friend Lulu of Coastal Sisters is having a wonderful weekly give away in Dec. ; c) This week is a beautiful pair of earrings she created!! So when you are finished reading today's two ( yep count them two) postings head over to Lulu's blog sign up for her give away and meet the newest fur baby in their family!! ;c)

How Do I Know it's Winter??? Let Me Count the Ways

For most people it's rather easy to know when Winter has arrived. The leaves change to beautiful colors then fall to the ground. You turn your air conditioners, fan, swamp coolers off or close the windows, so you can then turn the heat on :c) Coats, boots, mittens, hats, scarves replace shorts and thongs. The air is cold, you light the fire place, dig out the snow shovels, skies, snow boards, and sleds. And then there is the snow that confirms that yep Winter is here. :c(

The changes in the seasons here happen with a bit less fan fair. Here are a dozen or so ways that I know Winter has arrived in Mazatlan.

1) Little Rubi and Charli need their sweaters on during the day, outside and in the house. (the 2 chihuahuas)

2) LW has traded his shorts in for his jeans

3)We had to put the blanket on the bed

4) We are down to 1-2 showers a day instead of 3-4

5) The outside of your drinking glass no longer is sweating enough to make a small puddle

6)The infamous "sweat rags" ( color coded to your out fit washcloths) are no longer sticking out of pockets or being fanned like flags.

7)People are walking around in the mornings and evenings with real coats and hoods on.

8)People are no longer offering their first born in trade for the last air conditioner or fan in the city

9)Soon they will be offering that same first born for the last space heater in town :c)

10) We are no longer getting our government electrical subsidy to off set the cost for fans and AC

11) We haven't had a drop of rain in over 2 months so the vegetation is dropping it's leaves. Those plants that bloom in the arid dry forests are starting to bloom

12) AND the most convincing one is..... It's now colder in the house then it is outside!! ;c( Hey don't laugh, that's what our families do when we tell them it's cold here. Conversations sorta like "Cold haha it's 30 below the wind is blowing and there is 10 ft of snow on the ground. It's what 50 degrees there in the middle of the night?" Then the conversation is dropped. BUT if they had stayed on the phone long enough they might hear this "Let's see it's 30 below outside and what is the temp inside your house? Maybe 70-72 with the heat ON?? Well of course!! Our houses don't have heat and to boot they are made out of concrete and bricks (nope no insulation either) and tile floors. So when the temp is 50 outside it's 48 inside !

;c( Damn that's bum puckering cold!!! I mean think about how cold your house is when you come back from Christmas vacation and you walk through the door to a house that has had the heat set at 60 for 10 day!!! COLD HUH??? Well I don't have one of those cute little thermestats to kick the heat up to 70. Nope I have to wait until say March before the house heats up.

Ahhh but then temperature is just relative :c)

Have a wonderful day or evening fellow Bloglandians depending on what part of the world you are in :c)