Happy Christmas

I had a great time decorating for Christmas.  I even put up a tree this year, the first time for a while.  I especially enjoyed putting up my Christmas Star.

I hang my glass star from the ceiling.

I enjoyed bringing out my favorite ornaments and I have a few new ones to add to the tree.  We got an ornament from the museum in Florence.

Ornament from the Uffizi

I got some more little houses that had belonged to my Great Aunt in the 20's to add to my little village.  The figures were made from pipe cleaners by my sister about 50 years ago.

Little Village of hand made figures and my Great Aunt's houses.

I stitched some new ornaments for my and my children and added several from the recent trips we had done.  In addition to the Uffizi ornament, I also have a couple of boats from places we have visited.

Ship from our visit to Plymouth, MA.

I have quite a bit of greenery that I put up - no none of it is real, but we have several candles and essential oils that we use to give the house that evergreen smell that we like to have.  And this way I can enjoy the green without the mess.  

I have three cabinets that I add greenery, I have red balls and glass icicles on two of them and one has my collection of nutcrackers.

Nutcrackers and Christmas dishes.

I spend a month listening to Christmas carols (November), then decorate and enjoy my things.  I get most of them down around the 12th day of Christmas.  But some of them stay up longer because I want to just look at them.  One year I got a painting of St. Nick that stayed up for a year because I liked it so well.  I had wanted a copy of it for years, so when I finally got it I enjoyed it for a while.

My old fashioned Santa picture.  It is a pleasure to get it out each year.

I love seeing my things and spending time with my family.  We mostly cook and eat together.  We have a finger food and movie night Christmas eve.  Then Christmas day starts with eggs benedict.  We have been cooking that breakfast for years and we all love it.  Christmas dinner varies depending what we are interested in.  This year (since my husband retired he has been doing most of the cooking) my husband said traditional - turkey for Thankgiving, roast beef for Christmas and ham for New Years.  We got to have Mom for Christmas Day dinner and we all enjoyed a great meal.  Sharing time and food with the ones I love is my favorite way to celebrate.

At the Pioneer Craft House, where I teach weaving, we did an overhaul of the studio this fall.  We started by pulling off the bulletin boards and painting the walls.

Gray wall from current color and green from under the bulletin boards.

The walls had not been painted for a long time, I thought the cleaning would brighten them up but the color was just so dull.  We painted over with something warmer and then put shelves up on that wall.  

Shelves in process with old bulletin boards in front.

We moved the yarn from the closet and the equipment from the cabinets on the west wall.  We needed the closet space to store the table looms when they are not being used.

Old cabinets, they had been there for 10-15 years.

The moving happened while I was weaving a commission on the loom in the fore ground.  I had class members and weaver's guild members coming in to get the work done.  I was overwhelmed by all the help and at times at a loss to find what items needed to be done.

Shelves partly filled and looms still in a mess.

I have been slowly getting things put together, we got the looms set up after three tries.  and the boxes of yarn on the wall labeled.   Now the yarn is out to be used by the students and the place looks clear and bright.  I am really happy with how it looks.  There is still areas that need to be cleared and drawers that need to be organized but the table looms are now out of the way and have a place to be put when they are not being used.  

The rug commissions that I was working on during the room improvement got finished and I was able help finish up the studio re-arranging.

The natural colored alpaca rugs.

Dyed alpaca rugs

I decided to clean all the table looms and get the heddles corrected on them before the new classes start in January.

Looms getting washed and oiled.

I fixed the heddles and drilled some of them to fix the apron strings and beaters.  I am very pleased with the improvements on the looms.  Hopefully they will be in good working order for a couple of years.

Yes there has been a lot going on.  I do hope to weave some pieces for me this year and also have some work to show everyone.