Clove-Studded Oranges and Dining Room Pics

Happy Wednesday, my prim friends!!  Is everybody getting ready for the holidays?  We’ve been taking advantage of having warm temperatures and started putting up our outside Christmas lights.  We didn’t get very far, though, because when my hubby plugged in the icicle lights that go on the roof to check them, more than half of them were burned out. 

Many years ago, when icicle lights just came on the market and were only available in white strands, we made our own.  I also didn’t like the store-bought ones because they were too flimsy-looking.  It was never a problem replacing bulbs, here and there, each year.  But this year, out of 11 strands, only 2 completely worked.  So, instead of taking the time to go through each strand, we decided to just make new ones.  I went out and bought several boxes of lights and hubby wired one strand together and hung them on the roof.  Adding it to a previous strand, you can see a big difference between the two.  The lights are closer together on the new strands and when wired together, they don’t look like icicles,  just a bunch of lights clustered together.  So. . . .those came down and he’s back to going through every strand and checking each and every light bulb!!  (Thanks, honey!!   I still love you more!)  He only has a couple more to work on and should have them up by this weekend. 

About 5 or 6 years ago, my parents quit having the family over for Thanksgiving dinner.  There just got to be too many of us (32 – give or take a couple).  My three older siblings ( I’m the youngest of 5)  have their own kids and grandkids to celebrate Thanksgiving with and Chuck’s side of the family grew apart after his mom passed away about 10 years ago. Since we had nowhere to go, we started a tradition of putting up our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving day.  In the morning, while the turkey is roasting in the oven, we go out and put the final decorations up outside.  After dinner and everything’s cleaned up, we put the Christmas tree up and the kids decorate it.   This worked out great when my oldest daughter was in college and was home for Thanksgiving weekend to be able to participate with the decorating. Ever since my kids were little, I  bought them an ornament each year from a craft show with their name and the year on it.  They each have their own box of ornaments that they put on the tree and when they move out and have their own tree to decorate, they can take their box of ornaments with them.  We officially  “light up” the Christmas lights on Thanksgiving night.  I put the rest of my decorations out over the weekend.  Although my hubby claims I decorate all the way up to Christmas!  lol

 

 

In the past, I’ve made centerpieces with fresh pine greens and fresh fruit.  Since you need to keep the greens moist, sometimes my fruit doesn’t last until Christmas.  This year I’m attempting to use artificial fruit and thought I’d share with you how I studded mine with cloves. Don’t mind the display – I just threw this together to take the pic!  Plus I have more to make.

To make clove-studded oranges, you need:

fake, Styrofoam oranges

whole cloves

Folk Art Antiquing Medium (I use Apple Butter Brown #819) If you can’t find it, dilute brown paint with water

Phillips screwdriver or fat screw or nail

First, lightly rub antiquing medium over your orange to age it a little.  Let dry.

Take your screwdriver

and poke wholes in your orange.  You can be creative and make shapes, like  stars, and various patterns in it.  This step makes it a lot easier to insert the cloves!!

Finally, push a clove into the hole.  If one breaks off in the orange, take your screwdriver and push it farther in and push a new clove in.

I’ve also been working on these:

Don’t they look like a bunch of grumpy, old men?  lol  They’re going to be Santa faces.  I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do with them, yet.  I have ideas, but I’m not sure how they’ll turn out!  I’ll share pictures with you when I get them finished.

I’ve also finished this cross stitch picture.  It’s a Pineberry Lane pattern.  Now I just need to find a frame with a 7” x 7” opening to put it in.

Finally, as promised, I have pictures of my Dining Room.  The lighting still isn’t the best – there was either too much sunlight or not enough.  When I can get better pictures, I’ll post more.

I tweaked the middle section of my hutch and still need to work on the side shelves, but I probably won’t do anything with them until after Christmas.

 

 

 

Please come visit me on Friday to check out a delicious recipe for Cornbread, Sausage, Apple & Pecan Stuffing.  Plus. . . .I’ll have a couple of pictures from my main bathroom.

Until Next time . . . . Kris