Broke out the Sewing Machine...

OMG! I'm sure the thing doesn't remember me, it's been so long since I've pulled it out (other than to pack it) or even plugged it in. But, yes indeed, I pulled it out on the weekend and got busy hemming a plain white table cloth that I've been meaning to shorten for about 10 years and a goldish colored sheet (yes sheet) that I bought a couple of months ago on sale (cheap, cheap) with the intention of making into a table cloth.

The sheet is not very thick - a typical sheet - and I wanted to have the white cloth underneath it to give it some substance. I considered buying one of those quilted table cloth liner things, but $40 is to much for something that will never get seen. They're both on the table now and it looks great! Very Christmas-y!

But I ran into a problem. No, not with the sewing machine which worked like a charm after all those years of neglect, but with my iron. I plugged it in to iron the sheet and then work on creating an even hem for the napkins I planned on making with the left over sheet material. The iron didn't work. Now I know I've been neglectful of my sewing machine, but I think it's been used more recently than the iron. And the iron no longer works. So no napkins - and now the extra material and the ironing board and the iron are taking up space in my office.

You see, The Husband is going to look at my iron. He thinks it may be the switch - and he informed me that it worked fine this past fall when he had it out in the shed ironing edging onto some bookcase shelves he made. Excuse me? Oh, well, at least someone in the house was ironing!

Are there any sewers out there in Blogland? How about ironers? Am I the only one who refuses to iron clothes and, therefore, intentionally purchases stuff that won't need ironing? Growing up, my mom ironed everything - sheets, pillowcases, t-shirts, underwear (yes, underwear) - maybe that's why I have such an aversion to it.

The Story of Our Tree...

We put up our Christmas Tree yesterday - about time, my nephew would say. And, no, it's not a real tree - we didn't go 'a hunting' for it, just took it out of it's box, assembled, and fluffed. It's a pretty tree and doesn't require watering. Nor does it drop its needles all over the floor. Then came the decorating...

After a couple of years living in the Arctic (where there are no trees and I went 'out' every Christmas to visit family), we moved to Hay River and had our first Christmas together. We went and found the perfect tree (well, it needed some 'tailoring' where Ron brought branches from other trees home with us and drilled holes into our tree to stuff said branches in to make the tree look fuller - we lived in the Territories, not known for bushy balsam firs). Then we had to decorate it. Neither one of us had decorations - and I wasn't going to run out and buy a tree load of ornaments. Thank goodness for Canadian Living Magazine.

That year, the Christmas issue had an article on home made decorations. Those who know me are laughing already - I am not a crafty person - but these looked easy enough that I was confident I could succeed. I enlisted the help of my grade 5 students - I needed empty juice boxes and with only weeks until Christmas, I knew I would never drink that much juice by myself. I also needed burnt out light bulbs - again, sent out the call to students, friends, and neighbors. Next on the list - pinecones. Well, if the trees in that part of the world are spindly, their pinecones are equally as unimpressive. I called my mom. Then I went to the fabric store (yes, we had one of those) and bought ribbon and Christmas fabric. I had a plan. Well, I followed a plan!

Every year since then our tree is decorated by those very ornaments that we made ourselves. Little gift boxes tied with curly ribbon - the juice boxes wrapped in shiny gold, green, and red paper; and ones with pointsetta paper all tied with green, red, and gold curly ribbon. Gift bundles hang from branches here and there - the light bulbs wrapped in red or white Christmas fabric, tied with green and red ribbon (they look like little pouches). Big, partially open pinecones spraypainted with a dusting of gold and topped with the same red and green ribbon (Ron had quite the time getting wire down into them in order to hang them). A red and green themed tree, all hand made. We even made the angel that adorns the top of the tree - from a golf ball, some raffia, a cut out wooden angel wing shaped like a heart, and she's draped in some of the red Christmas cloth.

But it's the after story that makes our tree so special. Ron's sister, Kim, heard about our homemade tree and created a raft of homemade ornaments for us - reindeer made from old Christmas lightbulbs, angels made from golf tees, little jester men made from Christmas cloth with bells attached. Ron's mom taught me one summer to make quilted balls - and I did a dozen or so with the fabric I had used for the lightbulb bundles. And a teaching friend gave me angels she had found at a craft sale - made from old string mops!

And my students that year - they all gave me Christmas tree ornaments (not a coffee mug in sight) so my tree wouldn't be so bare.

So, People of Blogland, what goes on your Christmas tree? Special ornaments? Meaningful ornaments? Do you have a theme?

Crafting...

Now, remember I warned you earlier - this is a journal and you who read are subject to my ramblings :)

I attended my first session on Stitch and Bitch yesterday, well not really my first considering I had been a member of the group for 4 years the last time we lived on the beautiful South Shore of Nova Scotia. So I had to find something crafty to do - can't just show up and drink tea and eat goodies and gossip the whole morning :)

My craft of choice - wait, not really my craft of choice. I am not a crafty person, never have been. My mom tried for years to get me to knit (she's a fabulous knitter), but when all my practice squares came out as triangles and minus 1/3rd of the stitches she put on the needles... I finally discovered through my friend Brenda that I could actually cross stitch. No stitches to drop, no pattern to memorize, and talk about a blank canvas coming alive with a beautiful picture when you're done (always wanted to be an artist - can't draw a straight line). During my four years with the S&B group, I completed a few projects and gave them away as gifts.

I dug out my cross stitch stuff and wondered if any of the old group would recognize the project. Yup, 7 years later and I was still working on the same Christmas Snowman scene! How did I let 7 years go by without cross stitching? Well, writing took over my life and now instead of needle and thread, my hands are usually occupied with pen and paper. Thankfully, no one called me on my lack of progress and I was able to pick up where I left off (small mental stall at the beginning, but like riding a bike...).

And I realized I missed it. There's something about cross stitch that's very soothing (maybe not for you, but maybe you knit, or quilt). Your mind is focused on the tiny squares, no Monkey Mind. A rhythm develops. A picture evolves. Now this isn't art, but I can understand an artist sitting before her easel, palette in hand, focusing on her canvas, and the breath slowing as she uncovers the picture hidden beneath the whiteness with each stroke of the brush.

So, I had a wonderful time at S&B. Didn't do much bitching, though. Hmm - too busy cross stitching or I just didn't have anything to bitch about :) What about you? Any crafts you enjoy doing? Do you belong to a crafting group?