Heart Ornaments And Outside Xmas Decorations

Wow!!  It seems like forever since my last post!!  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Ours was great!  It was very relaxing and we spent a lot of family time together over the long weekend.  During the day we put up our outside decorations and then after dinner, we put up the Christmas tree.  Later in the evening, we went to the movies and saw “Blind Side”.   What a great movie!!   If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it!  The previews looked pretty good, but I actually wanted to see “The Christmas Carol” instead.   I got outvoted and I’m glad I did!  It was really good! . . . . I still want to see the Christmas Carol!!

I’m slowly getting the inside of my house decorated for Christmas.   I don’t know why it’s taking me so long, maybe I relaxed “too much” over the weekend, but I’m just having a hard time getting things done.  I’m trying to simplify my decor and, so far, I’ve got 2 large rubbermaid tubs filled with things I’m getting rid of.  On the other hand, I’ve also made a few things!  lol

    

Here are pictures of our outside decorations:

 

 

Here’s my new Christmas tree!  I bought this last year from Hobby Lobby after the holidays.  It was originally $400-something but was on clearance for 75% off.  After much searching in the back for one in a box, they finally “found” one.  The box was open and the branches looked like the one I wanted.  I was figuring the cost to be about $75.00, but it rang up for $50-something  and I’m thinking “sweet”..I must have figured wrong!  When we got home, I told my hubby that we ought to take it out and make sure it’s the right one.  Well….it wasn’t!  So we took it right back.  The only one they had like the one I wanted was the one on display, so we took that one.  They just did an even exchange and didn’t charge us the extra cost, so I got an even better deal than the 75% off!

I love this tree!!  The branches are staggered enough so that I can hang ornaments on the inside just like the real Christmas trees we used to get.  We had bought our other tree at Litehouse Pools about 3 years ago and I was never really happy with it because I thought it was too perfectly shaped.  The ornaments seem to lay on the outer edges and after the kids had put on all of their ornaments, there wasn’t much room left for many of mine.  With this tree, I was able to put on all of my ornaments plus need to buy more to fill in some gaps!  

I made this tree skirt many years ago when “hearts” were in!  lol  I started a new one last year, but I’m still working on quilting it.  Hopefully, I’ll have it done before Christmas!! (probably not!) lol

Do you like my newest tree ornament??!!  I sure can’t wait until he grows out of this stage. . .he LOVES the dangling ornaments! 

 

 

Some of you have asked how I made my heart ornaments, so I’m going to do a tutorial on them.

They’re actually pretty simple.  Draw a heart pattern on a piece of cardstock or cardboard and cut out.  With your fabric right sides together, trace your pattern onto the fabric.  Sew on the marked lines.  Depending on how you want to finish up your heart, either leave an opening for turning right side out or sew the heart completely shut and cut a slash in the back of the heart.

Cut out the heart and clip the curves.  Turn your heart right side out and lightly stuff with polyester fiberfill.   Sew the opening close.  With 3 strands of embroidery floss, do a blanket stitch around the edges. To learn how to do a blanket stitch, click on the link below.

 http://www.futuregirl.com/craft_blog/2007/09/tutorial-hand-sew-felt.aspx

Make a loop with the embroidery floss to hang the ornament.  Tea dye, if you wish, and finish with sewing a button in the center of the heart.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog!!  Please stop back here on Friday to see what yummy recipes I’ll have to share for Colleen’s Homemade Holiday Recipe Swap!

PLUS . . . . .I’ll have some pictures of my Christmas decor to share along with pics of my newly painted Living Room and Dining Room walls!!

Until Next Time . . . .Kris