A little more Christmas

I got everything home from the library yesterday. I loaded it into the car in heavy rain, unloaded it into the house in freezing drizzle, and by last night we got several inches of wet, heavy snow. School was canceled today.

I set up Santa's house in the bay window. I had to put a plexiglass cover on it for the library so it will be cat proofed here at home.
I added a few new things for the library display - Three more reindeer + Rudolph and a large tree. It looks like Red is busy harnessing everyone to the sleigh. Rudy is using skis to deliver the last minute mail.
When I bought Rudolph I also bought the snowman "played" by Burl Ives. He's enjoying his cocoa near the gazebo.
After loading the car yesterday I rewarded myself with a quick trip to my favorite resale shop. I bought several vintage glass ornaments and a "new" Santa for my collection. The second one from the left looks just like one my mom had when I was young so I had to get him. The third Santa from the right was made by my MIL before hubby and I were married. That makes him over 30 years old! I guess he's vintage now, too, lol. The Santa on the far right and the two egg shaped ones were made by my mom. I have other Santas scattered throughout the house but these are the larger ones.

I wrapped some gifts and I'm doing laundry. Now I can enjoy some time online - guilt-free. :-)

It's moving day

Today everything comes home from the library. It's raining this morning and turning to snow this afternoon. Could be an interesting trip. I have to have everything out by tomorrow, though, and I'm working Thursday and Friday and don't want to be exhausted before spending 2 days with 2nd graders, lol. So today's the day. Wish me luck!

Since I had to put a plexi front on Santa's house for the library display, I'm going to display it in the bay window here at home. The cat (and my daughter's cat who will be visiting over the holidays) likes to curl up in the bay to sleep. The interior will be cat proof and I think they will leave the elves and reindeer alone...I hope. :-)

Wishing all of you the best of days!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We traditionally decorate the house the day after Thanksgiving. We usually have 2 trees. One is upstairs in the master bedroom - that's our "big" tree with all of our family ornaments. We have our Christmas morning gift opening in our room EARLY in the morning. My kids are all young adults but they still get excited about Christmas. :) This is the downstairs tree. (It's the first year in a while that I've been able to put up a full sized one with all the pets.) This tree usually has some sort of theme based on ornaments we already have. I love vintage glass ornaments and I've collected a few vintage ones and more reproduction ones. The tree this year is all of those ornaments. The bottom few are all nonbreakable in case the pets bump them but the rest are glass. The lights are red as are many of the ornaments. I love how it turned out!
A new collection this year is this little Christmas village. My mother-in-law has a beautiful collection of larger buildings that she sets up each year - and everyone in the family has contributed to it at some time or other. I don't have that much space but when I saw a few smaller houses at Goodwill I was excited. All of these have been collected from various thrift stores in the last month or so. A few people and trees came with the first Goodwill purchase and I found a few more people at Walmart and trees at JoAnn's. I think it looks great under the tree. It has the added bonus of keeping the cat out as there's no good place for her to lie down. ;-)

I love Christmas in case you couldn't tell, lol. I look forward to seeing how some of you decorate for the season.

The transporting has begun

Today I emptied one display case at the library and also brought home the castle. That thing is heavy and something breaks every time it's moved. I'm not sure if it will travel again. But all is put back together and my new goodies have been moved in. I still have the other half of the wall display case, two floor cases, the cabin and the saloon to move back home. I will do that over the next two weeks.

While I was at the library, the head librarian (also named Dina just spelled differently than my Deana) asked me 1. to come back again next year with some new houses/rooms 2. to lead a workshop or program on dollhouses and miniatures in April and 3. to participate in a "meet the artist" program she's starting. I'd have a table set up and work on a project in the lounge area of the library. People could watch and ask questions but I wouldn't be doing any major speaking. Besides all of that, she told me that she gave my contact info to other area libraries in case they would be interested in a display. Wow! I'm going to have to work on better ways to transport these things.

Anyway, this is all very exciting stuff - I have lots to think about and plan. I'm thinking the workshop will be a sort of trash to treasure project since that's one of my personal favorite things to do. What do you all think?

A Tudor swap with friends

The online group I belong to, Small World, has a swap every month or so for most of the year. The last swap had a Tudor theme. Look at all the beautiful things I now have to display in my castle. I think I'm going to have to start that castle expansion project soon.
I made mandolins and "pewter" goblets for everyone.

Just a quick post - I'm heading off to sub at the elementary school for the afternoon. Hope you're all having a wonderful day!

Sometimes life is complicated

I am anxious to get back to blogging regularly. When I was almost all healed from my fall I got sick so I've been mostly out of commission this week. Next week will be filled with family and Thanksgiving preparations but I will get back to mini-making soon! I also have to move all of the houses and rooms back home from the library so it will be a little crazier than normal around here. I am taking time to check out your blogs. Please don't give up on me!

Life's a bit crazy

I'm sorry I haven't blogged this week. I'm working as a substitute teacher now and I had jury duty last week. To top off the week, I tripped rather spectacularly in a parking lot and had a face to concrete collision yesterday. I will have more to share soon, I promise.

I do want to tell you that the librarians tell me that my mini display is the most popular display they've ever had. That's cool!

Wishing you all a wonderful week!