Christmastime at Rose Manor

Christmastime has arrived here at Rose Manor. It's such a wonderfully peaceful time of year. Since I make my holiday list in January and start gathering gifts in February, by November I only have last minute gifts and the planner I get my niece every year (she's as organized as me, which is a given since she shares my name.)

The tree has been decorated ... twice and gifts are being wrapped. This will be the first Christmas we spend at home and to be honest, I am very excited. I tire of the frantic traveling from one relative to the next. It's so stressful making sure no one's feelings get hurt, that gifts aren't forgotten and that somewhere in all that craziness we don't forget to spend a little time with each other and the puppy.

But, back to Rose Manor and it's decorations. Each year I try to make a new set of ornaments. Our tree is all red, white and gold, so the ornaments, all in a Victorian theme follow that color scheme. Here is a sampling of some of those treasures:


This was made from white and gold cording that I hot glued to a styrofoam ball. I made two different sizes in this cording and red and gold cording.


I made a variety of these by rolling them after putting paint inside. Every few hours I'd turn then and two days later, this is what I got. I did a variety, but word of advise, the red and white may turn pink, but it's still pretty.


Here is a gold version of the same ornament.


This is one of my favorites, but a bit of a sad story, many of them turned yellow. I'm guessing it was the fabric stiifener not doing good in storage. This is the lone survivor. Any one have ideas to keep them from turning? I am hooping to find more round doilies so I can make more.


Thiis our current tree skirt. Many years ago my made these for Christmas gifts and I got to help stamp them. When she stopped putting a tree up I got this one. I recently found a monochromatic poinsettia cross stitch patternt that I want to use to make a tree skirt with. Maybe it will be a project for 2009 and I can debut it next year.

Until our next visit ...