Goofin' Off; Christmas Ornaments And Snowflakes (Already!)

 

Okay, I know it's only February but I have a passion for Christmas decorations.  The more the better, as long as they go along with my Christmas color scheme of the year.  Last Christmas, 2009, I gathered all the poinsettia items I could find in storage, along with anything that was red or white, some golden.  Red round ornaments, white lights, baby's breath, any angel I could get my hands on including fabric angels, glass and crystal angels, and some pearl beaded angels.  Poinsettia ornaments that were big, red, and clear like glass, glass icecicles, more white lights, and pearl beaded garland along with anything else I found that was white or red.

Oh yea, red bows everywhere, on the tree, on the fireplace mantle, on the china hutch, attached to the evergreen garland that hung any place I could make it stick.

  It was a remarkably beautiful tree, all said and done and I loved sitting in the living room with the tree and a fire in the fireplace and just soaking it all in.  Made me feel warm and (ugh) fuzzy.  I felt comfort, love, family togetherness, and accomplishment.  I can't find a photo that does the beauty of last year's tree any justice at all so the one without a flash, that shows off the lights a bit will have to do.

This year I'm starting ornament making early because all those gooshy feelings I had before last year's tree turned brown and was cut up into little pieces and jammed into the Green trash can for removal, all those feelings are still gushing and I have to do something about it.  I figured making ornaments for this year's Christmas tree would help keep the gooshy feelings alive and well.

I was right.  I'm oozing with gooshy feelings.  (That song "Feelings, nothing more than feelings"..  keeps running through my head).  No matter what you or anyone else thinks, those gooshy feelings improve my days and spark creativity for me.  Even if my new creative experiments aren't perfect, they are inspired by a Christmas past that I will always cherish for my own weird reasons.

Here's the beginning of my creative genius at work (j/k):

The ornament in the upper left corner of this photo was made with some left over lace I had from fiesta queen bags I made for the queen's court, and some beads and satin rosettes.     The ornament in front has part of a doily pinned to it.  (I start things, don't keep the pattern, hook and project altogether, and don't finish them because I don't remember what's what.) 

 

This ornament (front) was made with beads and a snowflake I crocheted from this free snowflake pattern on MarthaStewart.com. 
I don't have starch and wanted to see my completed project (even small) at it's best because that's how I get my thrills (at my age it doesn't take much to get a thrill). 
I like how this turned out but I can see I really do need to starch it so I can use less straight pins to hold it in place.  I don't like how the pins show so much.  Maybe I'll try hot glue for the next one? 

And lastly, for now, this golden one was made for my friend who had a golden and white tree last year.  The hearts are a store bought ribbon (99 cent store) pinned on with straight pins and clear beads.  I topped it with a white satin rosette but I'm thinking I should have used a cream colored one instead.

Nice thing about these ornaments is I can change them around at will without destroying the ornament or having to start from the beginning to make the change.

More to follow one of these days.