December Traditions

This month I thought it would be fun to share Christmas/holiday traditions that we all have during this time of year. I will be sharing some of our families traditions and I will be sharing other peoples traditions with links to their blogs so you can share the season with other people around the world. If you have anything special please let me know so I can post it and share a link to your blog. I will also be posting ideas and projects.

Every year I like to paint my cards, I paint one painting and then send it out to have cards made. It is a way to personalize the holidays for me and I get to share my artworks with family and friends. I start early, usually October so I have time to get them printed.

In the USA it feels as if Christmas has started to encroach on all the other holidays, I even saw decorations for sale at the end of summer! I know its all about moving the merchandise and not about the meaning of Christmas. So my family decorates for fall, pumpkins and leaves, gourds and sunflowers. We don't allow ourselves to decorate for Christmas until we have finished with the Thanksgiving celebration, remembering the importance and being thankful is the best place to start the whole Christmas celebration.

We usually start to decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. Filling the house with decorations and a tree. I usually decorate outside too, our yard has a outdoor fireplace and room that is lovely during the holidays.

We fill the fireplace mantles with bows of greeniery and lights. Hang stockings and I love to set up my villages low enough that the grandkids can come in and see them. I have a ice skating rink in the village that has skaters that dance around thanks to a magnetic turning motor underneath. But the kids think they are skating. The fireplaces all have fires and the house is full of Christmas music. I love this time of the year, when all the popular singers are singing Christian music!

So here we go into December, I hope you will check in often to see what new things I have found to share. Send me your links or traditions so we can all share together.

Christmas cards

Its that time again, even with so much going on I still really want to paint my own Christmas cards again this year. I think its so much fun to send cards that I have designed and printed myself. With the limited time I have had I haven't been really thinking about Christmas. Besides the fact that anything Christmasy that I might want to paint is still packed away until after Thanksgiving! Jennifer happened to find Pee Wee's Christmas dog collar as she was cleaning out her drawers the other day. When I saw it laying on her dresser I jumped all over it, its the closest thing to Christmas colors I have seen. Here is the little bells that are coming off of the collar. I might try some cookie cutter too, I should be able to find those!

More Christmas card ideas

These are quick watercolor paintings without a prelim sketch, very loose, fun, and fast. Jean Haines did a wonderful video demo at the Watercolor Haven on loose Santa's and I just had to play! Her work is very loose and fluid. This style is meant to leave some areas for us to figure out. I love this style and since I am working on loosening up this is a wonderful exercise. I love the fact that by creating disappearing edges and leaving out most of the details we allow our minds to explore the picture and fill in the blanks. I think it makes for a much more interesting picture sometimes than spelling everything out. But, after I have said that, I also think there is a fine line between too loose and to much detail so I am trying to find that place where I feel it looks like a finished piece. I think these turned out well, it was hard trying to for see where the beard would actually be so I didn't paint there. I want to try and capture the feeling of Santa, happy,warm, inviting, I think the third does that the best. Number one looks a bit grumpy! I can't wait to do some more.

Merry Christmas!!!

I have been busy, as we all have with Christmas just around the corner. Jennifer was in for 8 hours of tests and it was grueling. I am so glad that is over, now we just have to wait for the results. Then yesterday my grandson slipped into a diabetic coma due to having the flu and not holding down food so his blood sugar was elevated to dangerous levels. Wow, it has been an "e" ticket ride this Christmas. He is doing better now but is still in ICU. Hopefully he will be home for Christmas morning and all the presents. Before all the fun started I managed to get out my Christmas Cards and I sent out this Christmas postcard for one exchange, then my quilt guild had a block exchange and I made a gingerbread block to exchange. I wanted to offer it to all my quilting friends out there, if you would like me to email you the pattern for the gingerbread block just send me your email and I will send it too you as my gift. I will ask the girl who got it to send me a photo, I forgot to take a picture before giving it away. It is a very simple design but turned out cute, I sewed rick-rack around the edges and did big giant buttons for his eyes. Enjoy

EDM #95 and update

I finished my NaNoWriMo challenge and made the 50,000 word goal. Yippee for me, I was really surprised how easy it was to find the words when I made the time to write. I mentally kept track of how far behind I was getting if I hadn't written in a few days and then attacked the computer with a writing marathon. I was often writing the words through tears but thats ok. I feel like it was a kind of purging for my soul. I am not finished yet either, I have a bit to go so I am looking forward to setting aside the time for that. Its funny with me, I really work best with goals and drop dead deadline dates. It forces my procrastinating soul to do it!

I have also been working on my Christmas Card for both the exchange and just for our personal card this year. I have settled on this painting, for the card I softened the edges and then printed them. I used some glitter for the snowy areas and put gold around the edge of the card, I like the results. With the exchange I am sending and recieving from Thailand and Sweden along with many people throughout our country so it should be a lot of fun.

Thanksgiving was full of family and food as usual. I was a little sick so cooking and just all the activity kept me tired and a bit grumpy but all is well and we had a great time visiting with my mom and brother who also brought his dogs, a pug named Charlie and a new french bulldog named Winston. Cute, cute they added alot of activity to the dinner.