Another year of stitching, creating, and dreaming, has come to an end

and I find myself looking over at what I  finished, and 

pondering on whether I achieved all I had hoped.

Here is a glimpse back over the things I made this past year 2017

I love to embellish clothing with hand embroidery

I love to restore lovely embroidered linens that

that have had their original embroidery worn out

I love Victorian ladies and  wanted to thread paint

one with my hand embroidery

the flowering trees are so beautiful this time of year,

I had to design and embroider my own version

I love the ladies illustrated on old dress patterns,

and made a "pattern lady" by appliqueing and 

hand embroidering her 

a lovely vintage coat made me want to hand

embroider roses on it

hand embroidered dish towels and matching hand 

crocheted dishcloths took up 2 months 

of time for making Christmas gifts and items for

my shop

a lovely vintage design that I just had to embroider

I restored and made clothing for a vintage Horsman doll

for my great niece's birthday

I started hand crocheting snowflakes in October and 

finished them November to send to friends and loved 

ones in Christmas cards

for our holiday table, I gathered our backyard pinecones and 

made miniature Christmas trees out of them 

As I put the Christmas tree away, I am already focusing my 

attention on my work box.......which is waiting........over-full of things 

I want to stitch, to paint, to create...........

not sure as to what I will start to work on this new year............

Tell me, what have you accomplished this year in your dreams and creations?

What are your dreams and plans for the new year?

Farewell, Old Year! the rustle of whose garment,

      Fragrant with memory, I still can hear:

      For all thy tender kindness and thy bounty

      I drop my thankful tribute on thy bier.

What is in store for me, brave New Year, hidden

      Beneath thy glistening robe of ice and snows?

      Are there sweet songs of birds, and breath of lilacs,

      And blushing blooms of June's scent-laden rose?...

~Julia B. Cady (d.1869), "New-Year Thoughts," in Sabbath at Home, January 1870

Wishing you a very blessed new year!

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,

for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away

like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.

The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

Peace on Earth, good will to men,

kind thoughts and words of cheer,

are things we should use often

and not just once a year.

Remember too the Christ-child, grew up to be a man;

to hide him in a cradle, is not our dear Lord’s plan.

So keep the Christmas spirit, share it with others far and near,

from week to week and month to month, throughout the entire year!

~Norman Wesley Brooks (1923–2002), “Let Every Day Be Christmas,” 1976

From the backyard.........to our Christmas table

I gathered the fallen pine cones that had blown from

the trees here on the grounds and created little 

Christmas trees to decorate our table with. 

They were quick and inexpensive to make. If you would like

to do the same,  and you use your backyard pine cones, make  sure you bake the pine cones in a 250 degree oven for about an hour. ( place them on a lined cookie sheet)  

This gets rid of any bugs and sap that is inside of the cone.

----you can also purchase pine cones in a bag----

I used tiny terra cotta garden pots for the base, and just painted them with craft paint.

I then used a permanent glue......not super glue....but E6000® Permanent Craft Adhesive, 3.7 oz..

It holds the pine cone and each bead into place and dries clear  and strong.

I used craft/jewelry beads and just used a spot of glue on each pine cone

petal.

This year, for our Christmas dining, I have decided to use a vintage kitchen tablecloth

draped over our dining room table. 

It does not have a Christmas design, but the flowers in muted 

shades of red and green give a perfect nostalgic charm to the table.

I placed the pine cones straight down the middle of the table,

this way, each guest can see one,

I am using vintage dinner plates, and different homemade

cloth napkins made from Christmas fabric

as well as a few newer Christmas dinner plates. 

I also  made a few pine cone trees to sit along the back  door

window.  They look so cheery!

So tell me.............do you use a lot of linens at your Christmas table,

or is it easier to use the lovely decorative paper and plastic holiday

plates and napkins?

Do you have any great ideas in creating things from pinecones?

I would love to hear!