December 3 and all is well...

Shall we continue the advent fun? Here's matchbox #3, made by Donna Robinson...
And look what wonderful little treat is inside...a tiny ornament inside a bottlecap!

And here's Alfredo discovering door #3 this morning. I plum forgot to make it last night until after I'd tucked myself in bed. Then I jumped out of bed and quickly put this one together. There was a bit of a glittery mishap but I think all's fine now.



Speaking of glitteriness, I thought I'd show you my new star treetopper. I had a ho-hum ornament for the top of the tree which I decided not to use this year. While at Walmart with my folks last week, I spied this and the wheels started spinning.


It was pretty enough but a little too plasticy.

This picture really doesn't show it so well but exercise your imagination and trust in me...clear glitter on the clear parts, silver glitter on the silver parts and...
The lights are softly diffused a bit and it looks vintage and nice. Here's another picture I took last night...maybe you can see it better here...

If you need great glass glitter to make your own, get some here.

advent

I have two advent countdowns going...want to see?

My friends Ann & Linda gave me my Christmas present early...



(Except of course mine doesn't say "Williams"...this is the catalog picture.) When Ann gave it to me she said "I just know you'll do something fun with it to make it yours..."

I loved it just as it is but that thought planted a seed in my mind and I started imagining it in brighter colors, with different doors...


It took much more time than I'd thought it would. One night when I was hunched over it even though I had a crazy backache and a list a million things long, sweet Rich suggested ever-so-carefully that perhaps this project wasn't a priority...
The house itself is no longer available online. My friend Ann bought it at the Pottery Barn outlet in Leesburg...maybe they still have some available. I put it on a lazy susan so it would be easy to access all the doors (on all four sides!) If I can find the time, I'm going to decorate the lazy susan too. Or maybe I can buy one from my friend Jean.
There are 25 doors in all so it counts all the way to the big day itself.

I decided to decorate inside each door the night before so that it would be a surprise. I'm glittering the outside of the door so he knows which ones are ready...we're of course on door number 2 today and he loves this already.

Here's what yesterday's door had inside...

And here's today's...



My second Advent calendar was a Silver Bella swap. Each of us made 24 matchboxes in our number (mine was 19). I hung them all garland style from a wire strung under the boxwood garland above my mantel. If there's an ornament inside, we'll hang it on the garland.

Here's yesterday's box (made by Stephanie Oyler)

And look what's inside...

And today's box (made by Stacy McGinnis)

And this adorable felt bell inside...

So the countdown begins...I'm going to try to not let panic take over and enjoy each moment with Alfredo as he discovers the wonder of this holiday season.

oh no...

It was one of those proverbial "I looked away for just one minute and..." moments.


I had just placed this little treasure on the coffee table as I cleaned a little cabinet and took out all the decorations to get ready for the holiday decorations to take their place. I thought this little doll skate (That's what it used to be!) would look sweet under a little doll-size tree or something like that.

He asked what it was and I told him...I told him that he could touch it but he had to be oh so careful with it because it is old and precious...

Maybe I could put it back together with some glue...and maybe I should pray for a little extra patience with this little guy who is new and precious.

(Sorry, Daddy...yes, that is the doll rollerskate you entrusted me with a few years ago. I'm scouring ebay for a replacement and I think I found a PAIR! Let's just pretend this never happened...)

Meanwhile, I'll be back later this afternoon to show you my advent calendars...