Lotions and potions and cardboard tubes

The array of skincare products on my shelf have been driving me crazy.  They are wonderful products (and thanks to my friend, Robin, for introducing me to them) but  . . . they are packaged in containers with a small footprint and continually fall over on the shelf.  Grrrr . . .

So I made something . . . 

I happened across a cardboard lid (in the recycling bin) that fit perfectly in my cabinet. I stood the uncooperative products in cardboard tubes (toilet paper tubes, to be exact) in the lid to determine how tall they needed to be. I wanted to be able to identify the products and to retrieve them readily.

After cutting the tubes to size, I glued them to each other and to the sides of the box with a hot glue gun.  The assemblage seemed pretty stable so I didn't need to use any glue on the bottom of the tubes.

  

Then it was off to the basement for some spray painting.  I hadn't thought much about embellishing the lotion and potion corral, but knew I wanted it to be all the same color. I had matte white and glossy white spray paint on the shelf - so matte white it was.

 

It took three coats to make the various shades of cardboard white and I was wanting this project to be finished. The edges of each tube and the base were wrapped with Ranger tissue tape in a dictionary page motif.   Since tissue tape won't stick to itself, I coated it with Mod Podge to adhere the overlapping edges and seal it all.

Voila! The finished lotion and potion holder.

And since I had everything needed to make it, the cost was $0.00. What could be better?

Here's a view of  this organizer in my bathroom cabinet. I just take it out, use the products and back it goes. I am quite pleased.

The lotion and potion corral keeps everything upright, has a footprint that fits in the cabinet, and makes my morning routine so much simpler.  It's a good thing. :-)

Cheers!

I Love Little Houses

And anyone who comes to my "full-size" house would agree. I've been drawn to little houses for as long as I can remember.

The house that started it all was this little charmer bought decades ago at The Hoot, a unique independent gift shop in Willimantic. It's tin or thin metal and was made to be a Christmas ornament with a twirly bow and hanging loop.  A little metal fringed Christmas tree from the same manufacturer came home that day, too, and they have sat together in various places ever since.

Some time later, I happened across an ad in the back of a country magazine for a set of little buildings with a "timeworn" finish. So I sent off a check (yes,we did that back then) to someplace in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania and a little village appeared in the mail. The church, school, town hall, barn, and mill AND the metal house moved from the mantel to a bookcase, from a table top to a bathroom counter - wherever I wanted a touch of country in my house. 

Timeworn town

When I was still in the "primitive" mode I found this set of "Noel" houses at a craft show. I loved that they could be used for Christmas with the Noel on one side and then simply turned around for the other 44 weeks of the year. The picture isn't great and (unfortunately) I can't take another because these are undergoing a "refresh" (note replaced chimney on N) and no longer look like this. (A story for another time.)

My little house "mild interest" ramped up dramatically when I was introduced to Charlotte's Little Houses at the annual "Pink House" craft show in Woodstock, CT in the mid-1990's. Charlotte was a co-worker of my friend, JoAnn, and sold her hand-painted houses at craft fairs and to friends at work, etc. Charlotte's husband made the houses and painted the base coat of solid color and then Charlotte did all the detail painting. And what beautiful detail it was! For a while, she even did custom houses from customer photographs but I didn't have one of those done (regretfully). Charlotte no longer paints houses, so it is what it is. 

Christmas houses in the hallway

And for the details . . . these houses are no larger than 3" wide at the base, and the tallest, including the chimney is 4" tall. The painting is exquisitely done and all sides of the houses are painted. I have mostly winter houses  . . . plus a pharmacy and museum (no library though.)

The Halloween houses are pretty interesting as you can see.  I've shown both sides  -  the witches are stirring up some potion or other while the trick or treaters and the ghost coming out of the back window are a great touch. And then there's the outhouse . . .

Several of the summer houses . . .

I bought the three houses above as a set and keep them on a ledge in the powder room along with the two weather vane houses. Love the gray Cape Cod with the whale on the roof and the angel atop the yellow colonial. So New England . . .

The top set of houses are a fairly recent primitive style addition, while the apothecary, school and library mix well with my original timeworn set. And the prize in my collection is the painted green house, made by my #2 son when he was in nursery school. He probably has absolutely no recollection of it.

A grouping of larger Christmas themed houses traditionally sits on the windowsill in the kitchen accented with bottle brush trees and some Williraye skiers and sledders. These called to me at one time, but they probably have seen their last season here.

But onward . . .  a row of buildings from The Cat's Meow sits on the trim above the "library" powder room window. 

Three are replicas of Manchester, VT sites - The Equinox Hotel, Johnny Appleseed's Bookstore, and The Northshire Bookstore - while the other buildings represent The Globe Corner Bookstore (said to be the oldest bookstore in America in Cambridge, MA but now closed) and the Williamsburg, VA landmark Pasteur & Galt Apothecary. A wonderful replica of The Slater Library in Jewett City completes the lineup.

These days I don't search out little houses - I have more than enough. But . . . I have been reading about handmade cardboard Putz houses  . . . so the next additions to my collection just may be made by me.

Cheers!

A wreath for another season

Christmas grapevine wreath

 The grapevine wreath over the fireplace mantel in my house lives there year-round.  One reason is because I like it. Another is because it is larger than the average grapevine wreath found in the marketplace at  24" in diameter and fills the space well. And the best reason is because I can easily change it to suit my mood or the season.

I bought it unadorned and added a natural looking garland of leaves and berries found at Classic Country Furniture in Uncasville.  Two years ago, I was in a pine cone phase, picking them up on the golf courses we played in NC (too many according to the man of the house). I chose some of the smaller ones and tied them onto the wreath with brown chenille pipe cleaners.  I prefer those to wire because they poke well through the openings in the wreath and they are kinder to fingers.

For Christmas, I added some glittered gold birds and some swirly round ornaments. No bow this year, and I was happy with it. 

Valentine grapevine wreath

A quick changeover for Valentine's Day involved replacing the birds and gold ornaments with some hearts.

The wool hearts were my first ever Etsy purchase about four years ago from a shop called Marshall Country - unfortunately it doesn't have anything like this any more. They are made from 100% wool and are trimmed with vintage buttons. I made the bottom red heart from red felt I had (so the color is different) and added some buttons from Annie's button tin.

The hearts are attached to the wreath with wire ornament hangers. Pretty simple.







The Valentine's mantel  . . . I left the candle rings from Christmas since I felt the candlesticks looked too barren without them.

Quick change Valentine mantel

The stack of wooden spools wrapped in red ribbons adds a pop of color to the dark mantel. These fabulous ribbons are from the Jolee's Boutique French General collection and each pattern of ribbon came wrapped on a cardboard French lady holding a little metal spool charm. I was intrigued with them when I first spotted them at Michael's but didin't know exactly what I would do with them.  When I found the French ladies at T.J. Maxx at less than half price, I knew I could  find something to do with them and bought a bunch. So they are on spools on the mantel for now - accented with some heart quilting pins.

French General ribbons

I added wrapped spools to the ledge holding my winter deer . . . I love the lines of the metal deer against the off-white walls. I'm thinking I might have to darken the spools for the deer.  Hmmm . . .

From the French General line is another item that I hang for Valentine's Day. This 12"x12" collage of sewing notions and bits of ephemera called to me from way back on a bottom shelf at T.J.Maxx. I am a huge collage fan and am always intrigued by the way different elements are arranged to make a great composition. There's all kinds of stuff and whimsy to catch one's eye in this piece.

 Have a sparkling day!

A Giraffe of a Different Color

The #1 son keeps company with a little gal who has a "thing" for giraffes. Everyone has their favorite non-human creature, but Becci is the first person I've met who favors giraffes. 

So I was walking into the Dollar Store a couple of weeks before Christmas and smack dab in the middle of the entryway was a bin filled with plastic zoo animals.  Including giraffes. Without hesitation I grabbed two (two is always better than one) not knowing exactly what I would do with them, but confident I would. Do something or other with them. They came home and sat in the bag in the closet waiting for inspiration to strike me.

I was looking through one of the " too many" catalogs that flood the mailbox before Christmas and came across some funky ornaments. Animals accessorized with hats, purses, & shoes jumped off the page at me. It was time to begin. 

Spray paint was the first step - well, more like a dozen steps - those brown giraffe spots didn't want to stay under cover. And hitting all those hidden parts was a challenge. Then I decided I preferred a matte to a glossy surface so that was a bit more spraying. 

Now what? I had a cylinder of five rolls of coordinated red tape so decided to play around with that.  Decorated the neck, legs, and torso with tape, added a bit of red nail polish for the feet and horns (actually called "ossicones" and both males and females have them), some red glitter glue on the mane and tail and . . . Voila!  A Christmas (and possible Valentine's Day) giraffe. 

It elicited an "I love it!" from the giraffe fan, so all was good. 

And I have a spare that can be embellished with a different color for that green beer day in March!

Have a sparkling day!

Ann's Toleware Tray

Just a quick look at the entire tray mentioned in the earlier sparkle and shine post.

Mom was an accomplished toleware and theorem painter. She also produced a number of reverse paintings on glass in which items in the foreground are painted first, unlike the typical drawing or painting. The majority of this work was done using stencils and historical patterns - the workmanship was key, as was staying true to the pattern being painted.

Ann was chosen for membership in The Historical Society of Early American Decoration after submitting items to be judged by knowledgeable and experienced artisans. Only today can I appreciate her skill - especially with a young daughter sitting at the kitchen table watching, wiggling, and shaking said table. 

The table rescued from "the shed"

Once upon a time, many years ago, I was rummaging around in my parents' shed and came across a side table among the odds and ends of furniture.  Ann and Ted collected "stuff" that they brought home to "the shed" where it lived while awaiting repair, refinishing, or repainting. This little table was buried behind something or another, dusty and dirty, but the paint captured my interest - it had naturally crackled and aged - and time-worn finishes were all the rage.

I wanted the table . . . Mom said "take it," so I did.  She assumed I would repaint it but once I cleaned the grime off, the genuine crazed painted surface was actually quite nice. Much nicer than could be "faked" with any of the bottled crackle finishes on the market. There were a few dings and scrapes on the top and legs, and a small section of the bottom shelf had broken off, but that was OK with me. After all, this was a "found" table, not something from Marlborough Barn.

I gave some thought to trying to paint over the blemishes, but I knew matching the color would be next to impossible - probably making the dings more noticeable rather than less.  Inspiration came in a 4 oz. bottle of Aleene's  "Paper Napkin Applique Glue" that had come in a craft kit I ordered from QVC.  (Yes, I did that.) I looked through my stash of paper napkins and just happened to have a package with wildflower and nature images that melded well with the table's paint. I was in business.

Following the directions on the glue bottle, I cut around  flowers, ferns, leaves, trees and butterflies and separated the plies (layers) of the napkin so I was using only the top layer of paper for the actual decoupage. Then I spread glue in one area at a time where I wanted a particular image to be and gently placed it on the glue. It was gingerly smoothed to remove any bubbles or wrinkles and then more glue went over the top of the image. After a few false starts and ripped images, I got the hang of it  . . . below you see the results on each side of the table.

I don't have any "before" pictures - twenty-plus years ago, I think I was still using a film camera and who would have anticipated needing photos of this little table for a blog post.  (Did blogs even exist back then?)

I must admit it took a while to finish this whole table project. I had intended to cover only the dings and then add enough images to balance the design, but once I got started, the table took on a life of its own. Although the process was fairly simple, cutting the images from the thin and floppy paper napkins was fairly time-consuming.

The top of the table

                                                                    
After I had added enough to the table and the images were dry, I used a gold paint pen and drew squiggles and dots on the surface of the table to add some interest and a bit of glitz.  I cringe a bit when I look at the amateurish pen work - it was one of my first attempts. I'm much better at it today, but it is what it is and has a charm all its own. A conversation piece, so to speak . . . with a kind of "found in a French ladies sitting room" feel.

Detail of the naturally crackled paint

If I were doing this project today, I may have used fewer images . . . I got somewhat carried away . . . but one never knows . . .

A closer look

To complete the make-over, the table feet were painted a darker gray color and felt floor protectors added to their bottoms. After several days of drying time, a clear coat was applied over the entire piece to protect the decoupage work.  A ceramic drawer pull replaced the damaged original (a gift from my friend, Donna) and its butterfly image complements the table perfectly. Finished!

If you have a tired, worn, or boring furniture piece crying out for help, try giving it a new personality with  decoupage. Book pages, maps. napkins, wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, newspaper - any type of paper, actually - can be applied to just about any piece of furniture with Mod Podge (or similar decoupage medium) with startling and unexpected results.  If you have been drawn into Pinterest, do a search for decoupaged furniture and you'll see some great stuff. Go for it!

Cheers!

The table sits in the hallway with some of my sheep

A "steal" of a painting

My girlhood memories involve Sunday afternoon rides with Mom - either to fabric stores or antiques shops. She would say to my Dad, "We're going off gallivanting" before grabbing me (and sometimes Peter, my younger brother) and hopping in the car.

 There were numerous places to "gallivant" to but on this particular day, we headed off to Colchester, with the Fabric Mill and an antique shop on the Colchester Green as our stops.  I don't remember much about the fabric shopping, but the antiques shop . . .

I don't think I ever knew the name of the place (or if it even had one) but my Mom referred to it as "stopping to see what the two sisters have." The wares were displayed in the living area of their house and it was always a puzzle to me as to what things were for sale and what was not. But that didn't seem to be an issue because as we browsed, one of the sisters would trail along behind us like a shadow, providing commentary on whatever we picked up or touched. (Note: I was not supposed to pick up or touch anything.)

The oil painting that Mom had been wanting to purchase for quite some time of an old man carrying a sack and walking towards the sunset was still hanging on the wall in the house. So she said to the shadowing sister,  "Are you interested in selling the painting?"  That particular afternoon, only one of the two sisters was home and after some dickering, she agreed upon a price of $13.00.  Well, the cash was quickly handed over and we headed home. Mom was delighted and the old man took up residence in our living room.

However, back on the Colchester Green, apparently all was not well with the two sisters. The next day, the sister who wasn't home phoned Mom and demanded that she bring the painting back, saying her sister was not supposed to have sold it.  You can guess what Annie told her  . . .

The old man carrying the sack and walking towards the sunset (or is it sunrise?)  hangs on the wall in my house some 55 years later . . .

When Mom purchased the painting, it was a painted stretched canvas and hung in her house that way for many years.  I added the frame when the old man came to my dining room wall in 2002.

Oh, by the way, we never again went back to "see what the two sisters have" on any of our Sunday afternoon "gallivantings."

Sparkle, shine and a "little bit" of wine

My bit of sparkle sits on my counter

Through the gray days of winter in New England, we all need a bit of sparkle in our lives.  Mine sits on the kitchen counter and plugged in daily brightens my world and curves my lips into a smile.  What can this beacon of sparkle possibly be?

Well, drink up that large bottle of Pinot Grigio, grab a strand of 30 Christmas lights and you are on your way to creating your own little "bit of sparkle." I saw something similar on Pinterest a couple of years ago. When I followed the link to the source, I read how to drill into a wine bottle so the cord would come out the bottom.  Hmmm - I don't know about you but the whole idea of a drill applied to glass gives me the heebie-jeebies. So I found this alternative DIY posted somewhere and it fits the bill. (Sorry, it was so long ago I've forgotten where, and I do not claim to be the originator of this idea.) 

So let's get started. Find yourself a large empty clear glass wine bottle (how it becomes empty is up to you). Wash the bottle and remove the label. I've found soaking the bottle in hot water to be the easiest way to loosen labels and sometimes they will even float off. If any residue remains on the outside of the bottle, take out a trusty razor blade or scouring pad and have at it.

Let the bottle dry thoroughly and grab your little box of 30 lights - I used lights with green wire.  Feed the strand of lights in, one bulb at a time, from the end opposite the plug (that part should be self-evident :-).  Plug into the wall and voila! Add a bow for a festive look and a fabulous tag if giving as a gift, which is what I did with the clear light sparkler. Note that the green cord is hardly visible. So go forth and make one for yourself.  Add some sparkle to your day!

Clear lights in glass ready for gifting

The beautiful tray in the background was painted by my mother many years ago. The leaves and flowers are gold leaf - which came packaged in 4"x4" sheets in a little cardboard envelope to prevent folding,  creasing or breaking apart. If I recall correctly, the gold leaf was applied to varnish that had been applied over red-painted shapes and allowed to dry to a certain degree of tackiness. The thin sheet of gold was floated down over the shape and a soft paintbrush used to smooth and sweep away the gold that landed outside the tacky shape. Left to dry and then after several coats of varnish, the lines on the leaves and flowers were drawn in with India ink using a pen with a nib.  (Think Ben Franklin dipping his pen into an inkwell.)  Such painstakingly time consuming and intricate work . . .  I continue to be impressed.

Cheers!

"Found" Art

What's hanging on your walls? If you frequent galleries and purchase original works of art, this post might not be for you.  I love having something to catch my eye on the wall and have several spots in my house that are ideal for a rotating display of  "art." Greeting cards, magazine covers, silhouettes and shapes die cut using the Sizzix machine have all ended up under glass in a black frame bought with a coupon at Michael's.

Greeting cards are my one of my favorite things to frame (as you can see in this not so terrific photo collage). I'm thwarted by glass reflection . . . but you'll get the idea.  The most difficult part of framing a card is its size.  Many will fit into a 5x7 frame but won't have much of a presence on the wall if the picture takes up all of the frame.  An easy solution is to up-size the frame. With the array of frames and pre-cut mats available in craft stores, you can assemble great looking wall art using favorite greeting cards.

It's not obvious from the photo, but the smallest of these four examples is the 8"x8" framed ice skaters, a photo of little metal figurines taken by my sister-in-law (a professional photographer) as her Christmas card several years ago.  The mat is frosty snowflake scrapbook paper rubber-cemented onto the cheap white cardboard mat that came in the frame.  I cut out the opening with a craft knife and stamped the "happy holidays" label onto card stock, cut it out and tacked it to the mat so it is under the glass . To the right of the skaters the gray rectangle is Pat's business logo placed vertically to give credit where credit is due. This little beauty hung in my powder room for the holidays and is a favorite.

The largest of the four pictures is Santa pulling the tree. This has hung in my hallway for the past several years and has a wonderful vintage feel. The card came from my friend Jane, and is about 4"x6" but is displayed in an 11"x14" frame. It's all about the layers - the red around the image is a piece of linen-textured material unearthed from my hoard of fabrics that coordinated well with Santa's coat. The next layer is a standard pre-cut black core 8"x10" mat with a 5"x7" opening. Filling the space between the black mat and the black frame is black and tan check wrapping paper positioned on the diagonal.  The result is the look of custom framing using standard items.

The wood paneled truck and the Christmas carol pictures are both in 8"x10" frames with standard size 8"x10" mats. With its white border, the truck card was centered in the mat and white paper fills the space between the card and the mat. The spacing isn't precise, but it isn't noticeable because of the color.




The "Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat" card is one that we sent as our Christmas card about twenty or more years ago. I did trim the sides of this rectangular card a bit so that a fairly equal amount of  red paper would show between the standard 5"x7" mat opening and the card edges. The paper happens to be vintage end-paper style wrapping paper I kept from my mother's stuff. It adds just the right look and complements the red lettering.

So if you have a special card or one with an image you like, take it out of the drawer and put it on the wall. It's pretty simple and will make you smile.

Cheers!

A good day to sew

Today I sewed. With temperatures in the single digits, sitting in front of my machine at a table that just happens to have a heating vent under it makes the choice easy.  Plus I have a project to finish.

What's under the needle? A flannel baby quilt. An easy flannel baby quilt. Cut the strips, make each into a flannel sandwich, stitch them together, snip all the seams, and wash to fray the edges. I'm at the snipping the seams part right this minute.  I have a family baby shower coming up so I wanted to make something - it's not often that one becomes a "great aunt."  My inspiration came from a post for a flannel baby rag quilt on "Do it yourself Divas."

I'm not at all a "quilter" (long term projects are not my thing) but this cozy looking baby seemed to be something that could be completed before my attention span reached its limit. Last week I tempted the man of the house with a trip to Warwick, RI where every car dealership on the planet is across four lanes of pavement from a JoAnn's of the "superstore" variety.  Flannel  was on sale (yes!)  and I had a coupon that was good on sale items, so we were off. I found my seven flannel prints that didn't fight with each other, as well as white flannel for the middle of each sandwich. I grabbed a large spool of white thread so I wouldn't run out  - sewing 14 strips of flannel down the middle to anchor the sandwich and then to each other to make the quilt takes a lot of thread. (Note - three bobbin winds to be exact).

Here's what it looks like so far - a gender neutral assemblage of bright and happy flannel strips.  This is the side with the seams that need clipping - every 1/2" along each seam and around the perimeter. The other side is smooth and finished. Then it goes into the wash so the fabric softens and the edges fray . . . this wash business will be happening at a laundromat in one of those big machines so the blanket can slosh around and the fuzz won't wreak havoc with my home washer. ( I got that idea from another blogger whose machine overflowed when her lint trap became clogged.)

Here's a closer look at the clipping in progress. I'm glad I have some spring-loaded scissors which makes the snipping less tedious. I'm hoping to be finished with that part of the process tonight and visit the laundromat tomorrow.I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished gift.

Hope you all are keeping warm - we have been in single digits all day and the furnace is getting a workout! Cheers!

The Girls

Earlier this year, I became smitten with 18" dolls.  A friend was involved in planning an American Girl doll tea party at the library and I became intrigued.  I remember my Mom buying an American Girl doll and accessories as a Christmas gift for her one granddaughter twenty or more years ago, but I wasn't interested at that point.  I had boys, so Christmas in my house was books, hero action figures and things with wheels. Dolls were alien in my world.

To satisfy my curiosity, I did what every librarian does and combed the web for information.  In addition to the genuine American Girl doll website (now part of Mattel), there are sites, blogs, online marketplaces, outrageous auctions for retired dolls and retired outfits, how-to's and DIY's for rescuing well-loved and unloved dolls (and even changing them into boys!), spare parts (arms, legs, bodies, heads, wigs), clothing and shoe patterns, handcrafted couture (and not so couture) garments for sale on Etsy, and (a surprise to me) doll snobbery. It truly was captivating and became my version of the "Housewives" programs. I learned more about 18" dolls than I ever anticipated.

Of course after all this research, I couldn't not have my own girl.  My favorite historical American Girl doll is Molly McIntire - I think because she looks so cute in her glasses and I've needed vision correction ever since I couldn't see the blackboard in Miss Chapman's 3rd grade classroom. But I wasn't ready to part with the big dollars needed to bring Molly home because, of course, she is "archived" and only available on the secondary market (translation:  eBay).

Caroline, the first

So what did I do?  I purchased a Madame Alexander "Favorite Friends" doll titled "Sweater Dressing" from an online purveyor of toys and named her Caroline. Her face is just beautiful with blonde straight hair and blue eyes (two different blues, but that's OK).

However, I still yearned for Molly. So I hunted, read descriptions, watched, unwatched, followed and after several weeks I found the perfect Molly on eBay. She was "Buy It Now" (I really didn't want to bid), complete with accessories (score!) and in NRFB condition ("Never Removed From Box" in doll collector lingo). So I took the plunge and she was on her way to Connecticut. She arrived and I was in love. I was very excited that Caroline had a friend to keep her company.

Caroline & her new friend Molly

One fateful day I was shopping in Target and wandered through the doll aisle.  Now, if you are not up on 18" doll info, you most likely don't know that Target carries the Our Generation line of 18" dolls. Some purists refer to them as AG knock-offs (the snobbery I mentioned), but I think they have their own charm, as well as being one-fifth the cost of an AG doll. Yes, you guessed it. I brought Eva home that day - she called to me from the shelf and I answered.  She has reddish hair that is pulled back in two enormous ponytails, brown eyes and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose. I just love the freckles and her confident presence. She joined Caroline and Molly on the bed in the guest room. So then there were three.

Molly, Caroline, & Eva dressed for Fall

We all know that three is not a good number for girls (remember Middle School?) so I thought about finding one more girl to even the number.  I did some research and decided to look for Nellie O'Malley, another archived historical AG doll with a face that is different from Molly's. (There are 8 different face molds, FYI.)  I found Nellie pretty quickly on eBay at a fairly low price, read the description and bought her.  What's the saying - you get what you pay for?  This Nellie was a huge disappointment. She smelled of tobacco smoke, the accessories noted in the listing weren't in the box, her dress was crumpled and she had abrasion marks on her face. I was not happy. So back she went to Texas.

Nothing would do but to embrace the challenge and find another Nellie. The hunt was on and a week or so later another Nellie was on her way to CT - a NRFB find with accessories and storybook.  Not smelly, with a crisp dress, all accessories intact, Nellie arrived in perfect condition. She has shoulder length strawberry blonde hair, dark blue eyes and freckles across her nose. She is sweet and lovely. The girls hang out and enjoy doll life.

And that's the way it is - the story of my girls.  A friend told me that if I had grandchildren, I wouldn't have these girls.  One never knows . . . . they are just my cup of tea right now.

Nellie, Caroline, Eva & Molly dressed for Christmas

Break out the extra blankets . . . the thermometer here in Eastern CT reads ZERO degrees.  Cheers!

Undecorating Christmas

Now that the tree is gone, it's time to deconstruct the rest of the little scenes around the house. One of  my sentimental favorites is the manger Dad built in the 1950's and the collection of nativity figures Mom bought for it.

I remember it being set in the fireplace surrounded with a blue wrapping paper background.  Mom had us stick metallic stars on the paper for the Three Wise Men to follow and  bring handfuls of straw from the field behind our house to thatch the roof and put on the floor of the manger. It was just perfect. (Aha! Found a picture!)

No straw and blue paper for me, but other than the addition of the silver town roofline behind the figures (a wonderful 1969 UNICEF card by paper artist Ted Naos titled "Bethlehem"), it's pretty much the way it always was.  Just perfect.

Nativity Scene