Decking the Halls

 Hi Everyone! Here are the two small cross stitch pillows which I mentioned in my last post. I followed a tutorial by Lori Holt on Youtube on how to make cross stitch pieces into small pillows.

Can you see the pair of dear little deer at the base of the lamp? I came across them while going through things in my cellar. I can remember them from when I was little, and I thought I would put them out for awhile. :-)

 The charts for these pieces were found in this magazine.

As you can see by the spelling of "favourites," this is a British magazine that I picked up at Joann's. You will also be able to see on the left side of the cover page that these little pieces were designed to be part of an advent piece; I decided to just stitch a few of these as pillows for my red two-tiered tray. I hope to get a few more stitched before Christmas, and if not this year, next year.

I spent the day inside decking my halls. The front yard has been done since the weekend after Thanksgiving. This sled belonged to my dad's family, and it would be about a hundred years old or so. It spent years in the corner of the cellar, but for the last fifteen years or so, I have added it to my outside decorations.

 This tree was made by my neighbor; his has white lights while I chose colored lights.These photos were taken just as the lights were coming on. You may notice that the postman had left a package on my front steps. Yeah!!! I'll show you what was inside of it in my next post. It made me smile. :-) 

I had bought a wreath from my favorite cub scout, and it came with a simple red bow.  I have always loved decorating wreaths, and here is the result this year. On a shelf in my garage I have two bags full of bows, pine cones, and assorted baubles. Some of the painted pine cones on this wreath have been around for years. 

I coordinate the decorations with those that I put on the sled.

This small village is on a table in my sunporch. Three of the houses were purchased at a thrift store after Christmas for a ridiculously low price. I have absolutely no plans or desire to add to it, but I think it looks cute here. 

 Now,  do I have a recommendation for you!!!!! Last night I watched on Netflix, The Christmas Chronicle  with Kurt Russell in the role of Santa Claus. I had heard about this movie last year, but I didn't bother watching it as I thought it was more geared to children. Boy, was I wrong. It is geared to anyone from nine to ninety-nine. (It might not be good for really little ones.) It was FUN!!! I highly recommend it to all, and I am looking forward to watching The Christmas Chronicle 2 with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. If you want to smile and increase your Christmas spirit, definitely check out The Christmas Chronicles.

Final thing . . . if you are a cross stitcher, designer Brenda Gervais has a free Christmas chart, "Merry and Minty," on her Facebook page. (I am not on Facebook, but anyone can access the chart here.)  The first part was posted Monday and part two was posted today. Yes, I have started it though I already have a stack of projects calling my name; I suffer from  FOMO ( fear of missing out.) :-)  :-)  :-)

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 Devastating statistics for December 9, 2020

From tonight's CNN headlines: 

The United States reported a record-high number of new Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

So far on Wednesday, 2,939 new Covid-19 deaths were reported, according to the university. The US is currently averaging 2,230 new deaths per day, according to the data.

The US has reported 289,188 total coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Stay safe everyone.