Back to Work!

My vacation's over and it's back to work for me! I'm incredibly tired tonight and I've stayed up waaaay too late--as usual--but I was on a roll and trying to get everything done, more or less. Yes, there are many things I thought I'd get done while I was on vacation--like taking in and hemming a few pairs of pants--that I didn't quite get to, but I'm happy to say that the house is just about ready for Christmas and it's nice and clean! I think the only thing I have left to do is decorate my tree for the Sweat Shop--and maybe a tree for my daughter's former bedroom, but I'm undecided about that. I need to make a trip to JoAnn's for a few things, so maybe I'll look at their trees. Or not.

Besides the decorating, today I shampooed the rest of the house--my daughter's room, my bedroom, and the other half of the hallway. I also decoupaged some Holly Jolly and Christmas Past fabric onto my Holly Jolly letters and used Gorilla Glue to attach thumbtacks to the back. Not ideal but it seems to have worked--at least for now.

Anyway, I'll just share a couple photos with you before going to bed to get my beauty sleep.

"Holly Jolly" of course! It looks a little stark in that space, so I'll have to find something to liven it up a little bit--not sure what though. And remember that Santa cookie jar on the left? I decided since we aren't eating cookies, I COULD fill it with our 100 calorie snack packages.

And since I'm showing you letters, here's the "Noel." They seem to be reflecting the flash too much, but they look pretty good in the space, which can be seen from the front entryway; to the right is the kitchen and to the left is the hall leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

Back in the kitchen, here's my hutch. The hutch is a dark green, and I like to decorate with red and white for the holidays. I can then leave some of it up after Christmas as we move toward Valentine's Day. In fact, I have a Valentine's Day tree. Really! Wait until you see it! But one holiday at a time. Oh, and those "dolls" on top of the hutch--I bring those out every couple years and stick them somewhere in the house. These guys are "vintage"--they were my mom's many years ago. Since I'm going for a slightly retro look this year, they seems to fit.

The front bathroom--I just figured you'd want to see the runner I put up on the wall.

And a stitchery and paint (acrylic with textile medium) pillow cover. This is in my son's former room. I tried to get a couple photos in there, but the flash reflected off the window in one, and the other didn't turn out very well either. I'll have to get a few more photos another time.

And, finally, the quilt on my daughter's bed. I took a shortcut on the applique when I made this a few years ago. I traced the shapes of the holly leaves, berries, and bow onto a lightweight nonfusible interfacing. I then sewed that to the fabric, "good" sides together, cut a slit in the interfacing and turned the pieces right side out. After pressing them, I pinned them to the quilt and sewed them on while I was quilting the quilt. It worked out just fine! I'm sure I'll use the technique again someday.

Time for my beauty sleep, so I'll say goodnight! Thanks for visiting, and I'll "see" you later!