Are you going CRAZY too?

I'm too busy to blog, and feel totally stressed! I quickly looked at a few friends and family blogs and they haven't entered any new blogs recently either, so I guess that we all are in the throngs of the season right now. I hope that all of you have a very happy holiday and are safe in all your travels to and fro. love, Kelley

Chistmas Carolers

My Mom made these porcelain caroling dolls for me one Christmas when the girls where little. HOURS were spent cleaning, painting and firing these dolls. Countless more hours were spent by my Mom meticulously choosing the right color and style of wigs, eyes and so on. Each doll represents one of my daughters when they were so little and cute! They are still cute, but in a more fashionably and stylish way! Thanks Mom!!!!

Some Santas...

Here are my favorite Santas. I just bought the Cooking Santa Nutcracker and the other Cooking Santa beside the fake Christmas Treats this year. The wonderful Santa in velvet is an original Santa from the Coka-cola company. It was a display item for a Bayless grocery store in the early 60's that my Dad was a manager for. He brought him home after a Christmas and this Santa was a traditional fixture in my home growing up. My generous Mom gave him to me. I love that Santa Claus !!!! Some of the Santa mugs are old and some are new. Last year when I browsed the Antique stores, that is what I looked for.

Congratulations Graduate!

BRAVO for Chelsea! She just graduated from ASU with a degree in Music Education. WE ARE SO PROUD!!!!

Christmas Stockings

These are our family Christmas stockings. I saw similar ones that were leather in a Cowboy decorating magazine and wanted them sooooooo badly, but they were around $50 each 10 years ago. So I sort of copied them, only I used felt instead of leather. I made a pattern for the boot and different patterns for the toe, heal and top of the boot so that the stockings would all be different. I made half of these I think 8 or 9 years ago, and add to them as the girls have gotten married and as grandchildren came along. I need to make one for Sloan before this Christmas. I plan to make at least two more pinkish ones and two more blue ones since we know that Chelsea is having a girl, but it's too early to know what Kelli's baby will be. The girls didn't like the stockings too much at first because they can't hold that much stuff! But that's a good thing for Santa as we now have 20 of them!

Thanks Grandpa Fabulous!

Glampa Fabulous brought home a roll of manila paper that he found at work that apparently had been there for years, even before their company moved in. He had called to ask me if I wanted it and I did not hesitate! Here are my darlings hard at work, and everyone of the grand kids had more wonderful ideas as to what we could do with this big roll of paper. Fun, Fun, FUN !

And here is Cruz busy trying to carry around the basket of Santa hats. It's heavy and you can see his tongue is also tying to help carry the load!

I've just gotta BRAG!!!

My daughter Chelsea is student teaching at Desert Vista High School as a choir teacher. Last night she conducted several wonderful songs for multiple choir levels. She did great! But the most fantastic thing was that she had the opportunity to conduct "The Hallelujah!" chorus from "The Messiah" for the combined choirs along with the orchestra AND anyone who wanted to participate from the audience! Of course I got up onstage to sing. It was one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had! Getting to see her face and being in the midst of these wonderful singers and orchestra was..... I don't even have the word, but HEAVENLY! Chelsea was amazing, and at the end, the choir director: Andrew DeValk was so gracious in thanking her for the good job she did. (What a wonderful, generous man to let her have these opportunities) and then the choir presented her with flowers and a huge pink gift basket with baby items in it that weighed a ton! This night was a parent's dream come true, and I have been lucky enough to have many fabulously proud experiences over the years with each one of my girls, and now sons-in-laws and grandchildren. These are the moments I cherish and that make the harder "regular life" stuff worthwhile.

Thanks for letting me brag. (This photo was taken at Chelsea's senior recital. I forgot my camera last night!!!!!!! SHAME ON ME! She is now much bigger with my 9th grandchild!)

"Looks Too Good to Eat..."

I decided to decorate the tree in the kitchen "All things Yummy..." I bought children's "play" food, glued and glittered them, and attached hooks for decorations. I also put any decorations that I already had that fit into the theme on the tree. For the topper, I bought 3 styro foam discs and stuck a wooden dowel into the side, painted and covered the "lollipops" with clear-ish cellophane wrapping paper. I used white zip ties to attach the candy on top of the tree. I used to think that a glue gun was the thing to always have around, but lately zip ties are coming in a close first. But, who am I kidding, everyone needs a glue gun, duck tape, a soldering iron and zip ties if you want to be able to "make stuff". Oh yeah, and your own personal set of hand tools and small power tools at your disposal. HINT: Hide all these precious possessions, as Husbands and Son-in-laws who do not put their own tools back in the right spot want to "Steal" I mean "Borrow" them and you never seem to get them back or you find them still in the spot that they used them, now rusted and crusty!

Yummmm....

This is my display of delectable treats. Don't try to eat them though, as they are all fake! I made the cake by cutting a piece of styro foam in to four circles, I painted them a light brown (which was a waist of time because I ended up covering them up) and then I "frosted" the cake with white vinyl Spackle. I have a lot of fake fruit that I use for still life set ups, so I got out some strawberries and "drizzled" brown shiny fabric paint on top for chocolate and sprinkled glitter on top for sugar.

For the truffles, I painted styro foam balls brown and drizzled the fabric paint on top and glittered. I did the same thing for the chocolate dipped strawberries, but poured the paint on and let them dry on a plastic disposable plate so that they would peal off better.

I used lager styro foam balls and used the same process above to make the cupcakes. I put Spackle in the bottom of the cupcake foil cups and let it harden first so that it would be level. I also iced some cupcakes with Spackle, but they are on another centerpiece that I show you tomorrow.

It was fun, took some time, but worth it as I can use these objects for other holidays or parties and in still life groupings...

Another reason I love being a Glamma.

Yesterday, Sloan was given a blessing. She's wearing the gown that her Great Great Grandmother Openshaw made. Her Grandpa Fabulous and his 7 sisters and 1 brother wore it when they were blessed and Her Mom and her 4 sisters wore it when they were blessed and Sloan's 4 older siblings were also blessed in this dress. All of the babies that were blessed in this dress have their initials embroidered on the gown. Isn't that the neatest thing ever?!!!Sloan's Aunt Devan made her this pacifier with the serious BLING! Faaabulous!!!

Sloan thinks the dress tasty.

Ok Glamma, don't you remember that I don't have sitting up skills yet ?!

Only My Hairdresser Knows for Sure...

I got my roots done the other day, and my darling hairdresser Amanda asked me while putting the foils and goop in my hair "Have you finished painting your house? Because I don't see any paint in your hair this time!" I told her yes, for now, but lately I have been working on making a few new decorations for Christmas. Then, she paused and said "Yes, I can see that, I just found a bunch of glitter in your hair!" I thought of the old commercial that said " Only my hairdresser knows for sure" and then I remembered how at the last two massages I got, the masseuse asked me if I had been painting. I had paint on the back of my arms that I guess I couldn't see to scrub that well.
It came to mind that I am an open book. I do not lie (I am terrible at it, thank goodness) and my family tells me that I disclose way too much even when I am just meeting someone or even just chatting with a stranger in a line at the checkout counter. I am what I am and I am finally coming to accept and even like all the quirks about myself. That will have taken almost 50 years this April. It gives me comfort to know that I have a good more 30 or so years to improve bad habits and to acquire better ones, to become a more skilled artist, a more loving wife and mother, and a much better friend and extended family member. (God willing) THIS IS GOOD! These thoughts leave me hopeful and excited for the future, even with all the crummy stuff that happens on this world.
Anyway, I didn't start this post with sentiment and soul searching, it just happened. I guess I'd better copy this entry for my journal. (many silent thanks to my genealogy teacher, Bro.Comeau) THE GLITTER: I glittered tons of fake fruit, made fake candy and decorated all kinds of stuff for the kitchen. (I am a little worried about getting it all cleaned up, it's hard. Every time I think I'm finished cleaning, I look from a different angle and see glitter ALL OVER the kitchen.) Anyway, here is the village. It was a lot of fun to put together. I can see why people love making train city's and such. Maybe next year it will be bigger. The houses are all chipboard, painted and glittered. I used vinyl Spackle for the icing, and children's air dry clay for the candy. (Some of the candy is plastic that I bought.) I can't wait for the grand kids to see it. I am buying some small fences I saw at the store to give a more visual "please don't touch" feel to remind those kids to not eat anything.